bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Scored my first 10 point buck this past weekend... a buck that popped up this fall I named "Bo." Some of the fellas around the age of 50 and older will understand why the name "Bo" and 10 fit together. ;)
Here's the tale behind the harvest for anyone who might enjoy reading it. Woke up after a late night to our first real frost in North Florida. Knew the deer would be moving so told my wife I was going to make a big mug of coffee and sit upstairs in our bedroom to see what might walk by. Soon as I start scanning our back yard, I see a beat-up 6 point looking towards one of my plots... looking like he wanted to go in but was too timid to do so. Video is short, but he truly stood in one spot without a single step for 5 full minutes. The battle marks on the 6 point and his timidness made me think that "Bo" might be holding court in the plot so I told the Mrs. I would be sitting over the plot in the afternoon.
Visible wound along his left shoulder that appeared to be linked to the limping.
Cold afternoon temps (mid-40s down our way constitutes an arctic blast ;) ) found a few does feeding about an hour earlier than usual. With about 45 minutes of daylight left two does that had been feeding in a narrow "sliver" clover plot crossed over into my larger primary plot, and about 10 minutes later I saw Bo's rack break into the picture. He walked towards the does but stayed at the far edge of my plot, putting the shot at about 125 yards with me holding an old 30/30 gifted to me by my father-in-law 25 years ago. Did my best to calm the buck fever nerves down, aimed close to center mass just over the front leg juncture, steadily pulled the trigger... and... he looks shocked but doesn't jump or move a single step... hurriedly lined up another shot fearing I've missed and that he'll run any second... fire... and he slowly walks about 5 yards and stops again. For any who might have read the report of a 9 pt named Flame I harvested earlier in the year but lost the meat to an extended search, I was determined not to go through the same agony again so I quickly line up one more shot... this time moving the cross-hairs up to the spine figuring if the previous shots possibly were dropping / off an inch or two I'll get a solid hit. Pull the trigger and he instantly crumples to the ground. Can see him lying motionless but still wait about 5 minutes before scurrying down and walking across my plot to him. Blessedly he's not moving a muscle and looking him over I see that every one of my shots was true. First deer I've hit that didn't at least give an arching jump or briefly fall, and actually the first deer I've ever fired at with more than one round.
Checked the stomach contents while field dressing and found whole swamp chestnut oak acorns in the bucks stomach. Pretty big morsels to swallow whole.
In the past few seasons I've been sitting through season end but despite limits being 2 bucks A DAY in our state (theoretically a hunter could harvest 156 bucks in my FL region gun season), happy to call it a year, let those still walking grow another year, and have the chance to do some land work with over a month head start than I would have if I were hunting through our January 22 close. :)
Here's the tale behind the harvest for anyone who might enjoy reading it. Woke up after a late night to our first real frost in North Florida. Knew the deer would be moving so told my wife I was going to make a big mug of coffee and sit upstairs in our bedroom to see what might walk by. Soon as I start scanning our back yard, I see a beat-up 6 point looking towards one of my plots... looking like he wanted to go in but was too timid to do so. Video is short, but he truly stood in one spot without a single step for 5 full minutes. The battle marks on the 6 point and his timidness made me think that "Bo" might be holding court in the plot so I told the Mrs. I would be sitting over the plot in the afternoon.
Visible wound along his left shoulder that appeared to be linked to the limping.
Cold afternoon temps (mid-40s down our way constitutes an arctic blast ;) ) found a few does feeding about an hour earlier than usual. With about 45 minutes of daylight left two does that had been feeding in a narrow "sliver" clover plot crossed over into my larger primary plot, and about 10 minutes later I saw Bo's rack break into the picture. He walked towards the does but stayed at the far edge of my plot, putting the shot at about 125 yards with me holding an old 30/30 gifted to me by my father-in-law 25 years ago. Did my best to calm the buck fever nerves down, aimed close to center mass just over the front leg juncture, steadily pulled the trigger... and... he looks shocked but doesn't jump or move a single step... hurriedly lined up another shot fearing I've missed and that he'll run any second... fire... and he slowly walks about 5 yards and stops again. For any who might have read the report of a 9 pt named Flame I harvested earlier in the year but lost the meat to an extended search, I was determined not to go through the same agony again so I quickly line up one more shot... this time moving the cross-hairs up to the spine figuring if the previous shots possibly were dropping / off an inch or two I'll get a solid hit. Pull the trigger and he instantly crumples to the ground. Can see him lying motionless but still wait about 5 minutes before scurrying down and walking across my plot to him. Blessedly he's not moving a muscle and looking him over I see that every one of my shots was true. First deer I've hit that didn't at least give an arching jump or briefly fall, and actually the first deer I've ever fired at with more than one round.
Checked the stomach contents while field dressing and found whole swamp chestnut oak acorns in the bucks stomach. Pretty big morsels to swallow whole.
In the past few seasons I've been sitting through season end but despite limits being 2 bucks A DAY in our state (theoretically a hunter could harvest 156 bucks in my FL region gun season), happy to call it a year, let those still walking grow another year, and have the chance to do some land work with over a month head start than I would have if I were hunting through our January 22 close. :)
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