Lil Jon is a buck that got named when I was looking thru cam pics this year and said "hey a turn down, cool" and my youngest started yelling "HEY TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?" over and over, the LilJon rap song... the name stuck. He has always had a common base G2G3 on the right side and that's how I've identified him. He has always been in this piece of private I hunt, and been quite visible.
In 2016 he was just a nice young deer, nothing exciting except his love of pumpkins and gourds.
2017 he kept the common base points but added a small drop on the left and a G4 on the right. I saw him A LOT and passed him many times, once at 10 yards on the ground. In fact my buck I killed last year (see Toad story) chased LilJon out of a field and under my stand.
2018 LilJon was a target finally. He kept the common G2G3 on the right, kept the G4 and turned his beam DOWN into something I've never personally seen. His left side was a thick heavy 4 point.
Hard horn after I found the SD card case I lost a week ago. Found it walking in to check cams TODAY
I kinda hoped one of the kids would kill him, but he dropped off the grid early Sept and didnt show back up until Oct 1. I didnt get a chance to really get after anything until a week, or so, ago and had been keeping an eye on a piece of public. There was a big pine stand in it an I'd been sitting in it watching a very large thick draw from a distance. Many bucks would cruise this valley and I had a very good idea where I needed to be, I only needed a VERY strong W to NW wind to keep it from being swirly. Today was my day to make a move. 20mph winds and a cold front and bucks all over the place chasing and cruising. I had to drop kids at school and by 0800 I was packing my stuff in. By 0900 I had set up and was amazed at how tore up the place was... I mean TORE UP! A large 8 point cruised thru almost immediately but got out of sight before I could do anything.
This was key to my mentality... 2 days before the national guard was doing live fire drills from the parking lot and let me tell you... machine guns, mortars, and grenades were blowing holy out of things from 3 PM to 8 pm... I was hunting not far away, I heard it all!
10 minutes later I saw a good buck working a scrape 50 yards away. I glassed him and geeked out, it was LilJon, 3/4 mile from where he usually was, and he was in my wheelhouse. My heart was just POUNDING as he swayed up the path and as I came to full draw he stopped and tested the swirly wind currents. I was at full draw long enough that my arm was hitching forward but I blinked and told myself to "suck it the **** up and get in the game"... that was all it took, I settled in for another half dozen breaths when finally he turned his front and opened the vitals. The Grim Reaper went in mid line right in the pocket and came out his right arm pit, right thru the heart. He was down in seconds within 40 yards. I had been in the tree for 18 or 19 minutes. I havent hunted public much over the years and it was such a great feeling to take a big old TimberPig from this year on public.
Set up, only 3 sticks up, but plenty of back cover in the right angles
As he lay, though I did tag him quick. Heckuva sight to walk up on.
#1 target down, LilJon, on public land almost a mile from where all his pics taken.
