"Irma" Makes Landfall

bigbendmarine

5 year old buck +
As some forum members will know, I named a buck on my place "Irma" after it showed up on camera in daylight for the first time just hours before Hurricane Irma gave us a spanking in Florida a few miles east of Tallahassee.

As some of you will also know, though big bodied and obviously mature for our neck of the woods I struggled on whether to harvest him or another of a couple of different bucks after taking a nice 8 point earlier in the year (as I self-imposed a 2 buck limit a few years ago to do my part in not thinning our local buck numbers too much).

Well, yesterday Irma asked for assisted suicide and I couldn't help but do my part. Here's the real story, crazy as it is.

Three days ago I heard a nearby shot and that inspired me to pull cards the next day to see if I could tell what / if any buck had gone missing. Unfortunately, NONE of my potential shooter bucks were on camera so I had no way of telling... but the one buck I feared being harvested the most was Irma, which pretty much answered my own question on the forum of which one I should harvest if given the chance.

Fast forward to 10am yesterday and I was packing to go visit my mom / give her some company after the recent death of my father. While saying goodbye to my wife I look down our driveway... and lo and behold, Irma is cutting across it just yards from the house!

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Now, being honest I see lots of deer from the house, but during season almost all of it is near dusk and dawn and typically it's does and yearling bucks that don't yet know better. Pick up my camera and take a few pics thinking he won't stop, and shocker of all shockers he parks a hundred yards or so away nipping on some low hanging live oak leaves.

Wife actually encouraged me to put up the camera, grab the rifle, see if I can get a shot at him, and delay my travels a day if so blessed.

Go out a side door and sneak as best I can towards him, using trees as cover as I inch towards the edge of my yard.

HUGE BLESSING is that I've got a strong wind blowing directly from him towards me. Finally get where I think I can make a clean shot as he is milling around hunting for acorns when I try looking through my rifle scope, a Sightmark Photon put on to shoot pigs at night, and though it can be used for day via a flip-down peep aperture that limits light entering the scope, the bright 10am sun leaves the view washed out and I'm really struggling to see cross hairs / thinking I may not shoot and risk injuring him if I can't get a better contrasted sight image.

And here's where the "You might be a redneck..." (or an adaptive Marine) part kicks in... I slowly get in the prone position and find by cupping a hand around the eyepiece I instantly get a MUCH better image... but am also worried about keeping the shot true giving up the one hand. Mind is racing for what I might use to shroud the sun, when it hits me my t-shirt I have on would work perfectly if I can manage to get it off without spooking him. Wait until he's facing away from me and inch the t-shirt off and over me. I'm just SURE I've spooked him and he's run away in the process, but get the t-shirt over my head, look through the eyepiece, and he's there still there facing away from me! Wait for him to turn and offer a good broadside angle and then the deed was done.

Not a harvest I'll forget any time soon! DEFINITELY the very first I've made shirtless, even if it is Florida. :emoji_wink: Irma had run off a bit of the impressive bulk he had in pictures a month ago, but still a BIG boy as Florida bucks go. Absolutely calling it a season with the "cannon" now, with any more sits only involving the Canon camera. On that note, few post harvest pics.

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Job well done Marine! Sometimes we just can't explain why things happen the way they do, all we can do is take it with a smile.
 
Great story and congrats on that very nice deer! It's always a special feeling to get one of your target bucks. Sorry for the loss of your dad. I hope you and your mom are doing well.
 
Beautiful deer! You’ve changed my preconceptions about Deep South bucks.


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Yep Irma was my vote.
I hope you didn't get to cold with no shirt, it is December :)

Congradulations!
 
Unofficial score???
 
Unofficial score???
Bueller, I tried throwing tape to him in the back of my truck very quickly before taking him to a neighbor's cooler and I got about 120 gross / 115 net. That said, the missing brow on his right side threw me for a loop. I just scored him as a typical with the missing brow scored as a zero but I'm not 100% sure that's the correct way to do it. I knew he wasn't going to be a scoring monster, but his main beams were both right at 20, inside spread of 16, base circumferences over 4, and G2 and G3s right at 8.

Interestingly, buck I shot a month ago seemed to have way less antler mass but scored better than I expected and was pretty symmetrical. Measured him at 114 gross and 111 net. He's the first euro I did myself. Fairly happy with how he turned out.

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Your Euro looks good.

I was only asking about the score to see how we did in guessing it on the other thread. Score is just one aspect of a deer and IMO you have two great deer there.
 
Your Euro looks good.

I was only asking about the score to see how we did in guessing it on the other thread. Score is just one aspect of a deer and IMO you have two great deer there.
Absolutely! I suspect the buck I named "MeLikey" would outscore Irma, but for some tough to explain reason(s) Irma kept being the buck on my mind. That he was the ONLY buck I really feared being harvested after hearing a neighbor shoot a few days back 100% answered the question for me as to which one I had my heart set on. :emoji_thumbsup:
 
I was only off by 5 :emoji_slight_smile:
I had g2's at 9 and G3's at 10. For some reason the 3's looked longer to me.
I'm always a bit liberal with field scores. But that's the only time! Well ok maybe when I'm pouring a drink too.....
 
Awesome story. Glad you made it happen. Nice buck!
 
Great story and the ending was a nice buck. Good job.
 
Very nice bucks and a great story on making it happen.
 
Great job BigBend! Fine FL buck!
 
That's great BigBend!! Thanks for sharing....
 
Nice buck and thanks for the pix. Congrats !!
 
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