Ol’ Amos…

[River-X]

Who else has one of those mythical deer that roams the woods or the farm for generations?
One of my favorite memories of growing up s the Legend of Ol’ Amos.
when my brother and I were young kids, my dad and uncle would combine corn during the middle of the day and bow hunt in the mornings and evenings every weekend at the farm during fall.
One night they came back to the buildings after a sit and were both excited and had seen a monster buck. My uncle had him right behind the tree and let an arrow fly! He hit him in the antlers and his arrow was all bent up and the buck, no worse for wear, ran towards my dads stand going by, but never slowing down.
well, they named him Ol’ Amos. Now, I know we have all this camera technology and many people give names to every buck they snap a picture of or see, but this is different. Ol’ Amos has now evaded hunters and still roams the farm thirty years later. Im pretty certain he will still be tearing up the woods when my boys are my age.
Anybody else have an Ol’ Amos or some other fun tradition?
Chris

 

[Catscratch]

Lol, great legend!

We used to break ice and jump in after the last duck hunt of the yr.

Almost forgot about SluFoot. A hulk of a man who escaped from an asylum. He injured his foot with his axe (that he always has with him). He moves slow but makes a distinct sound that you can hear late at night. He's been roaming these parts for at least 3 generations of young campers.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[Bill]

Cameras killed it.

We had “the wooly mammoth”
He was rarely seen by the human eye but we did get a few pics of him. 8 point with bases as thick as a beer can. The last year he lived I was full draw on him at 40 yards. He was looking at me so I thought better then letting one fly. By then he was a six point. Got a picture of him in January after the season but never again.

I firmly believe he died that winter of old age.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

We didn’t have deer legends cause I grew up hunting in a place where the deer hunting sucked so we improvised…we have the Wee people. Little gnome elf like people. The old timers would scare the hell out of us younger kids with stories about them and the occasional glimpse they would catch or sound of them running by as they were walking in before daylight. Mind you we hunted big country then for Georgia. This was a 2500 acre tract in sw Georgia surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of timber company land. Not a field for miles. So as a kid those woods were intimidating enough. Throw that little piece of info into a kids head who was just old enough to walk to the stand by himself and it made for some interesting mornings and evenings…to this day I still don’t know if they were lying!

 

[River-X]

These are the stories I was hoping to hear. Great stories and legends. The best part of Ol’ Amos is that anytime one of the family gets a glimpse of a big gagger buck but can’t say for sure which “target” buck it is ( because, like Bill said, cameras have ruined this), then we just assume someone saw Ol’ Amos. Every year someone gets eyes on him for a second or two, but no one has ever put him in the dirt.

 

[Bill]

I dug up an old pic of the Wooly Mammoth.

This was a year before he died. He was a horse. The next year he lost weight and antler mass. Still digging for that pic.

 

[River-X]

He’s a brick…Hooouuussse, he’s mighty mighty…

 

[Bill]

He’s a brick…Hooouuussse, he’s mighty mighty…

Found it. January a year later. About 2 months after he was in my sights.

Just a shell of the mighty wooly mammoth we chased for years…

 

[bigbendmarine]

NOT a deer legend, but a tool I bet was used at deer camps long ago to scare young hunters...

Back when I was a kid in the 70s I remember campers scaring one another with something I've heard called various things... dumb-bull, haint (ghost) caller, and even wangdoodle. Basically one pokes a very small hole in the bottom of a large empty storage can (such as coffee can or old lard can), run a length of cord through the hole with knots tied at both ends (or buttons) to prevent the cord from being pulled through, and then either pull along the water soaked cord with wet fingers or a resin-coated rag to make the most God-awful friction noise one can imagine... to a young kid hearing it echo in the woods it sounded like the calls of an offspring birthed from the marriage of a bear or bigfoot and Godzilla.

I've seen several posts about them on a Georgia based forum, and have wondered if some of y'all fellas North of the Mason Dixon line used them for mischievous fun too.

 

[Native Hunter]

Ole Abby Normal just disappeared. I think he was abducted by an alien.....or maybe he was an alien.....

 

[Mortenson]

That deer is awesome!

 

[ghilliehunter]

We have/had an old bruiser named Tank. Rack has gotten smaller the last 2 years. Found his sheds but don't have him on camera this year. Last pic was from December 2020. Probably died last winter.

 

[PatinPA]

I remember as a kid we had big 8 point that everyone knew about. It was frequently seen spotlighting. My dad's friends young son started calling him Bucky Yucky. The night I killed my first deer my uncle missed him and the following year I put on a one man drive to my dad and he ran past him at 20 yards stopping once behind a tree. Never heard of anyone getting him. Probably poached. That was pretty common back then.

 

[roymunson]

The Bully 8.
Killed at 5 years old, I tried everything I could to get him at 4 and 5. He was an old toad with almost no antlers. Loved chasing that deer. He scored 119" when he was killed. But he ruled that ridge.

 

[Bassattackr]

Had a bully we named Captain Hook a few years ago. Actually had a shot opportunity of him as a 3 year old (missed underneath him), still want that one back..

I'll see if I can dig up some old photos..

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Had a large-bodied buck we called Dagger roaming the farm and beating on all the other bucks. He had a good sized 5 point rack on his right side, but the left was a split, thick 2 point.
He was just irascible and grumpy. My dad shot him on a Friday night in November and we found him the next day. He was huge (for Northern PA), at around 230 lbs...It was all 2 grown men could do to pull him 100 yards.
Dad had watched him patrol a 6 acre field, chasing does and just being a bully. Upon hanging him up to skin, we found several huge white tumors or lumps and made the mistake of cutting into one of them. It was the worst thing I have ever smelled, bar none. We called the Game Commission and they came and took poor Dagger away, though they did give my Dad a new buck tag.
I think seeing him on camera only added to the legend, as he was always in a fight or patrolling...I think he knew he was sick/injured (our best idea was that he was either hit by a car or shot by a small caliber rifle by someone attempting to poach him) and wanted to spread his wild oats before his time was up..

 

[Teeder]

NOT a deer legend, but a tool I bet was used at deer camps long ago to scare young hunters...

Back when I was a kid in the 70s I remember campers scaring one another with something I've heard called various things... dumb-bull, haint (ghost) caller, and even wangdoodle. Basically one pokes a very small hole in the bottom of a large empty storage can (such as coffee can or old lard can), run a length of cord through the hole with knots tied at both ends (or buttons) to prevent the cord from being pulled through, and then either pull along the water soaked cord with wet fingers or a resin-coated rag to make the most God-awful friction noise one can imagine... to a young kid hearing it echo in the woods it sounded like the calls of an offspring birthed from the marriage of a bear or bigfoot and Godzilla.

I've seen several posts about them on a Georgia based forum, and have wondered if some of y'all fellas North of the Mason Dixon line used them for mischievous fun too.

A few years back, an older guide I had in newfoundland used that exact device for a cow call!

 

[bigbendmarine]

I shared this about 4 years ago, but had a buck I called Evander (due to a broken ear / Evander Hollyfield) that was super-easy to ID in videos.

He was no spring chicken when I first moved to our place in 2014, but managed to get him on camera into early 2018. Not the biggest deer in the world and FAR from having the best horns, but sure had gained some scars and character over the years... never saw him again after taking the picture immediately below.

 

[Native Hunter]

It took me a while to find this old pictures, but look at the body of this buck from 2013:

 

[Mozark]

It took me a while to find this old pictures, but look at the body of this buck from 2013:

Maybe Abby bred a moose before he was abducted...