Dukslayr
5 year old buck +
Some of you know that I purchased a new/different farm in September of last year. I’ve made a lot of improvements in the 14 months. One of those improvements has been creating a relationship with one of my neighbors. We share trail camera pictures and strategy and discuss which bucks we are shooters and which we let walk. The goal is 4.5+ but we would love to get that to 5.5+ at some point. Unfortunately not all of our neighbors share our goals and restraint. Anyway, one of the bucks we have on camera is a deer he’s got a lot of history with. He named the deer Hole In The Shoulder buck 3 years ago as it appears someone shot this deer in the shoulder when he was 2.5. I have no idea how he survived but it was a good reminder of how resilient these creatures can be. So, my neighbor had a long history with this deer, I do not. We have both had him on camera quite a bit this year and I believe he used my farm primarily but had plenty of ventures onto the neighbor. As season rolled around we both agreed that he was the #1 hit list buck. Due to many reasons I’ve had limited amount of time to hunt this year; I’ve had one two sits before this weekend. I had 11/1-11/4 pegged for a 4 day chance to kill my first buck on this farm (didn’t see anything over 3.5 last year and was still learning how to hunt the place). I had been saving a stand on my west side (closest stand to the line between this neighbor and I). I hunted it the afternoon of 11/1 and had a great sit, but nothing I was ready to shoot. The morning of 11/2 was one of those great mornings. After 1.5 hours of shooting light I had seen 6 bucks and 9 does...in fact I had 6 does come off the neighbor and onto me, and the same time Hole In The Shoulder came out of a timbered draw on me and made a beeline for the doe family, chasing them all around the CRP field I was hunting. After a short but nerve racking flurry of action I got him to stop at 33 yards quartering away. I put and arrow through him and he bolted off and onto my neighbor. My neighbor and I had been texting that morning about how the hunt was going since he was unable to hunt. I texted him to let him know that I shot the buck and it had run from me onto him. He told me “go get him”. I know he excited but disappointed at the same time. I gave the buck a couple hours and went to track him with my buddy. It was a short 80 yard track, as the arrow had severed his aorta on its way through. It was kind of surreal experience walking up to him after learning his story and talking about him with my neighbor so often. I was obviously very excited but also felt a a twinge of sadness that we had ended our chapter with this buck. He’s a tank and very mature. I’ll get officially aged and scored, but he’s at least 5.5 and I rough scored him at 157” (largest bow kill). Really neat deer, cool story and one that fits our management goals perfectly.