The 20 minute public land slob....

[365buckin]

[Longbow]

Congratulations, great job!!!

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[Ridgerunner7]

Congrats man!!

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[binney59]

Wow, that's awesome! Congrats on a great buck!

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[JakeJD]

Congrats, rather be lucky than good.

Best of luck with the toddler and number two.

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[Hodag Hunter]

Great looking buck. 20 minute hunt is a smoking fast season. I'm sure a good feeling but now over for the rut? Any plans to jump to another state?

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[muddy]

Nice one

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[Knute78]

Fantastic!

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[Mario]

congrats, seeing that thing appear out of the mist must have been awesome!

[Edcyclopedia]

Spectacular!

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[JoeRE]

Thanks guys, I am blessed to have my season go like this and yea my wife is probably happier than I am lol. A few more notes on the hunt and the buck: I do have history with him, but he was not on my radar for that hunt. I never saw a sign of him this summer or fall. The main buck that I thought was regularly using the area was a big 8 I had on camera several times not too far away on a trail camera in early October. In 2012 I got pictures of this buck in the rut 3/4 of a mile from this spot. In 2013 I got this deer on trail cam nearby but it did not seem like consistent use. He is a very old deer. Eventually I will probably cementum age him, but his teeth are some of the most worn I have seen, and I have saved a big pile of jaw bones over the years. My guess is he is 6 years old at a minimum, he lost tine length and gained mass this year, another sign of going over the hill. Its humbling just looking at a deer like that, who knows how many hunters he eluded.

A few more details on the spot I got him. It was a really subtle bottleneck leading onto the end of a ridge that had timber stand improvement done a few years ago and as a result grew up with lots of thick brushy patches - perfect bedding with a south wind blowing down the point. Every other hunter walks right on by it and I did too till this year - and yes, reading some things on the Beast gave me the idea to look closer at it. The bedding is scattered down the end of the ridge, not just one spot which makes it hard to pinpoint and there is very little rubs or other sign along it, thats why people walk by it. What tipped me off was the last two years I have found dead mature bucks dead in their beds on that point after deer season. There is open hardwoods in every direction from there, I call it the hardwood desert because there is little underbrush, so when I looked at it in the big picture it seemed it just had to be the best bedding in the area for a long ways, meaning the best bucks would likely be using it. The trails were not very distinct leading onto the ridge but there is an area where deer skirt the top of a ditch that is about 100 yards wide. A perennial scrape is near there, and I figured any buck coming through would hit or at least scent check that scrape so I picked that side, and that's what he did. The nearest crop field is over a 1/3 mile away and this hunt was my first hunt ever at that location. Chalk up another one for complete surprise, its how all the oldest bucks seem to fall.

Oh and Stan you are right, I learned to keep shooting till its down. I thought the first shot was bad but it was good...makes me think what if it had been the reverse and I thought the first shot was good, but it had been bad, and if I hadn't taken that second shot things could have turned out a lot worse.

A couple more pics, he is just a big wide and heavy 10 with super long main beams:




I think this buck could not see much out of his right eye, it was very cloudy...will have to ask a biologist about it.

His right eye, it doesn't show up great in the photo cuz I didn't think of doing it till I skinned out the head but you can see the cornea seems cloudy.

Left eye for comparison.


I don't think I will be hunting any more this year, at least until late season around the holidays...usually I hunt some in Wisconsin but probably not this year. I definitely am going through withdrawal but try to keep in my mind in a few years I will be able to take my kids out and I have a feeling that will be far more awesome than pounding the ground myself all season long.

[Haus86]

Congrats!

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[Beast-Mode]

Nice Buck. Congrats.

[kurt]

Cool looking buck...good job

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[Ack]

Well deserved buck....congratulations!