Some of you will remember I posted a week ago about missing the 14 point in my avatar. I had pictures of him over summer and then he disappeared until last weekend. When I had the opportunity I clean missed and off he went. So after trying to think of a game plan ALLLLL week long while at school i was able to head home thursday at noon becuase of cancelled classes. I decided to go back to where I missed the week before, but in a tree about 30 yards away in case he remembered the tree... spooked a doe walking in, but as for the hunting I didn't see anything once i got in my stand. I got down at dark and went home to sleep so I could get out in the morning. I went back early and ran a drag line for about 200 yards that passed my climber at 20 yards and sat in my tree stand for about an hour in the dark( thought daylight savings had changed because ODNR sunrise/set list shows all of November with the time change applied) when the sun came up I repeated the same the sequence i used last weekend.. rattling for 30 seconds every half hour, this weekend i included some grunts and bleats with the primos can. every half hour passed with nothing responding until 9:00 am. I rattled for 30 seconds , used some short louder grunts, and 3 or 4 quick bleats with the can. This guy came crashing out of the neighbors thick bedding area right into my open woods at 80 yards. he proceeded to walk right at me until he reached 20 yards where he stopped behind a tree. Unfortunately I had already drawn and waited about 30 seconds till he side stepped, looking directly away from me. He moved his left front leg to the left slightly and i released at 20 yards. On impact he sprinted so i grabbed my grunt tube and he stopped with a few grunts, looked back in my direction, tried to walk and stumbled to the ground! This is my biggest buck to date and although I know there are a few larger ones running around this place, I am ecstatic to have had the chance at this one. I do feel slightly bad, just this past Wednesday i had him on camera and thursday morning both in shooting light. The camera was to inventory for my dad in his rut spot and he was going to try to kill this guy. I was hunting about a half mile away and this guy came from the opposite neighbors property. I didn't realize it was the same buck till i walked up on him. all is well though, this just means my dad is gonna have to kill the big one!
