Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

My opening day buck!

bds9

Junior Member
14
0
Mason
Well here he is. My hunting partner and I had trail cam pics of a nice 130class 8 and three other 140-150 inch ten pointers coming out of the same corner every night heading into bow season. My buddy had eaten his buck tag the past few years and I had been fortunate enough to kill a few nice deer over that span so I offered him the first crack at these deer opening evening. As luck would have it, the wind was right for this spot so we went in midday and hung a stand for him. I told him I was going to go on the other end of the field to set up on a long strip of woods that separates the upper and lower fields that approx 80yards wide and thick.(we're both set up on the upper field) So at about 5:30 that evening like clockwork, the big eight shows up as suspected in front of my buddy but unfortunately immediately sees something isn't right and turns around and bounds back into the thicket.(we later found out that this Deer probably watched us hang the stand from his bed) so my buddy is bummed and I assured him it was early and not to get frustrated. So he proceeded to have 15-20 doe and small bucks feed by him all the while I still haven't seen a deer! So I'm starting to get frustrated by his texts that read "three more does" what seemed like every five minutes. Then with about 20 minutes of legal light left, through the treetops I see horns down in the lower field! I text my buddy telling him "I'm going after them" and decided to try a stalk. I made it down my tree, and about ten yards but decided the woods were so loud I'd never get close enough the way things were. So I sat down, took my boots off, threw my rangefinder around my neck and proceeded. I slowly made the stalk of about 80 yards and got more nervous with each step. The closer I got, the more bucks I noticed! I finally got down to the edge and tucked behind a small forked tree, each for about 3" in diameter. I was shaking so bad I could hardly stand! There were at least 6 descent bucks within 75 yards and I know 3 or 4 more out around 100. I ranged the closest one to me and he was 62 yards. But just as I ranged him he started slowly walking closer. I ranged again,47 yards. He stopped just then and started feeding again. So I knew it was now or never. Put my fifty harder on him and let it fly. I didn't see the arrow but I knew I heard that distinct ribcage sound! The other bucks didn't know what happened, but cautiously trotted out of the field the same direction my buck ran. I ran shoeless through the thick woods and to the edge of the upper field. I threw my hat up waving and said "hey" in the direction of my buddy. That's when the giant turned around and looked at me and I could tell he was huge! Unfortunately he entered the woods about 60 yards north of my buddy and never got within range. But at least I got mine! We went back and put my boots on, then found blood, and then my buck about 75 yards from where I shot him. It was a perfect shot, double lung.
pic#2 shows my buck and my hunting partners buck. He had a phenomenal stalk/belly crawl on his on the third day of season. So we had two big bucks down before October!

20130928_202810.jpg20131001_112606.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator: