The Saga of "Slingshot"

[muddy]

My buddy invited me down to gun hunt with him this weekend and for grins I decided to go. A month ago he started sending me pics of the shooter bucks on the farm I would be hunting and I sorta fell for a buck that wasn't much in the rack department but had a monster body. As we spoke I found out he had matched sheds off the buck from 2006 and the landowner had one of the sides from 2007, which got made into antler art. Anyway, for obvious reasons on the split g2's I started calling the buck "Slingshot". I joked that I was going to kill that buck and he said he would bet a million dollars that of any of the deer on that farm Slingshot would not be seen. He said I stood a better chance of killing Brutus (giant 180 ten point) as that buck he had actually seen in day light. Slingshot was nocturnal and always had been since he started that farm in 2006. Numerous trail cameras placed all over that farm yielded lots of pics, all between 10 pm and 3 am. I shrugged it off as I was more interested in hanging out with buddies over shooting a buck. Anyway, fast forward to this morning and as we were getting ready to walk in my buddy saw lights way off and said, "You shold be pumped right now, they're going to push that right away" I shrugged and dipped my head into the 25 mph winds, it was friggin cold. We walked on and on and decided to sit on the ground to film as the trees were rocking. We literally walked up to a 4 way trunk tree and I said, "This looks pretty good, can shoot everywhere and have a good solid rest" Buddy replies, "Dude, there's a deer right THERE". It's shooting light, but barely. I look up and out and reply, "That's a freaking buck, is that... is there freaking Slingshot?" Buddy replies, "No freaking way... holy poop on a stick that IS Slingshot, SHOOT" I snuck about 15 yards to the field edge and got the scope on him as he trotted across the picked bean field, pushed out by the guys walking in on the neighboring property. Hindsight being 20/20 we wondered how many years in a row this buck has done this, slipped off to safety through this little wooded ditch? 4? 5? Anyway, I got the scope on him and touched the powder off. I thought I missed as he ran 150 yards, stopped, and stood there for a minute. I asked if I hit him and my buddy replied, "You rocked him, I saw the impact" That's when he danced a circle and ate dirt. A 8 1/2 year old nocturnal GHOST was eating dirt! I was happy, but not nearly as happy as my buddy. He was fist pumping and just freaking crapping himself as this buck was one of his #1 hit list bucks. He sincerely told me that if the 180 stood next to this deer broadside he would shoot Slingshot. I dunno, I don't have the history with him but I have to believe him when he says it. This buck was like one of his "children" so to speak and he was glad he was gone as this buck bullied everythign in the section. Well, without further adu, here he is. He doesn't score for crap but as my buddy said, "If you add up the survial experience and know how in that buck, you just shot a 200 inch deer". I agree. Thanks for reading.

Trail Cam pics from this year, he had a hard drive crash and lost all from the previous years unfortunately.





Harvest pics, we had fun and got creative, I think they turned out great.

[huntinfool14]

very nice! great story! congrats!

[cornfedkiller]

Congrats on taking down a stud! Heck of a story muddy!

[magicman54494]

Cool rack! Congrats

[Uncle Lou]

Thats a cool deer. He's almost got a little mule deer going on on that right side, as he forks and forks again.

[Dewey]

That is one freaky looking rack!
Congrats on a great buck Muddy!

[BackWoodsHunter]

Awesome buck man is this the second great buck for you this year? and didn't you hammer the spring turkeys as well? Helluva season no doubt! congrats man

[huntinnurse]

What a buck!!!! And a warrior too!!!! Broke off the left G2!!!!! SOunds like you 2 had a fantastic time!!!!!!

[hunt n nut]

Very cool ...congrats, Muddy on a great deer and another great season

[Spysar]

Looking at the harvest pic I would have not guessed him that old, so its cool you and your buddy have the history on him. Looks like he broke one of his "slingshots". Congrats Mud.

[Dabowhunter]

Awesome story and deer, congrats

[dan]

Awesome! I would of never guessed him that age without the trail cam history. To bad he broke off the brows and stickers.

[Haus86]

Cool buck Muddy. What are you going to do with it since you can't mount it?

[muddy]

Euro mount more than likely.

[cwoods]

nice buck and cool story!