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!
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.
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.



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!

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.


