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October 30th Deer Season JournalOn Tuesday morning I slipped out the basement door and was in my stand by about 7:40 AM. As soon as I sat down I noticed a doe on a flat below me. She walked uphill and passed by me about 70 yards to my right. A short time later I noticed a buck walking along this same flat. A grunt stopped him and a couple of doe bleats brought him up the hill similar to the doe a few minutes earlier. Some time later I heard something in the brush behind me and discovered it was a ten point that we’d seen on our cameras and one time out the back windows. I grunted and he turned in my direction. He must have either heard me or saw me as I was trying to turn in my treestand in his direction. He came to within about 20 yards and then angled off away from me. I may have been able to try to take a shot as he walked away but knowing a larger buck was in the area kept me from attempting a shot. This buck walked down onto the flat below me so I grunted and bleated at him a couple more time just to see his reaction. He continued to walk off along the flat. A few minutes later I noticed two young bucks to my left. A couple grunts and bleats started them in my direction. As I watched them I noticed that the ten point buck had come back up the hill, now to my left and was about 80 yards away. The two young bucks looked to be two four points and they continued right in front of me and moved off to my right. The ten point came to within about 40 yards to my left and stayed there for a while before starting off in the other direction. As the ten point walked off I rattled to see what he would do. He stopped once and then continued walking away. I then turned my attention to the walking sound now coming from my right. It was one of the four point bucks searching for the fight. He walked right behind me and stayed within 30 yards for a while trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually he wandered off. A short time later I heard something running in my direction from behind me. As it came close I saw it was a fox. You just couldn’t beat this morning so far. By shortly after 10:00 AM I decided it was time to climb down and get some things done. I packed up and lowered my bow. After climbing down I was trying to get a knot out of my pull rope when I heard something walking in the brush behind me in the same place I had heard the 10 point earlier. It looked like the 12 point buck we had seen. I bent down, put my release back on, grabbed my bow and knocked an arrow. When I looked up again he was still walking away to the left so I grunted one time. At this he turned and started straight down the hill in my direction. The buck continued down the hill about 10 yards to my left. As he walked behind a large tree I drew my bow and grunted with my mouth when he emerged on the other side. When he stopped I shot and the arrow hit him high. The shot hit his spine and paralyzed his back legs, but he got back up and continued moving over the hill. Every time I thought he was stopped he lunged again and headed farther over the hill. He finally came to a stop on the flat below me about 70 yards from the initial shot. I eased up to the bank above him and made another shot. He continued to struggle and I was able to make a third shot. After an uphill drag, with help from my brother-in-law, we were able to get him hung up and weighed. The 12 point buck weighed 150 lbs., his antlers had up to 13 points depending on what all you count and the inside spread was 19 in. This is the largest buck that I’ve ever shot and will likely be the largest buck that I’ll have an opportunity to shoot for quite some time. 
This morning was one of the best mornings I’ve spent in the woods and would have been one of the best even if I had not shot a buck. Seeing five bucks in one sitting is a special day and that doesn’t include the does I saw as well as the fox. It’s ironic that we try to do everything that we can at our hunting property to grow big bucks and I walk out the back door of my house and shoot a deer that is bigger than anything we have on our hunting property. The only thing I had done to support these bucks was that I hadn’t shot them earlier. I surely can’t claim that my management practices were responsible for the development of these deer. Some things sure leave me scratching my head. (Added Oct. 2, 2008) After almost a year I finally had the chance to remove this bucks jaw and attempt to figure out how old he was. I use the Deer Aging Tool to help me age deer. It isn't an exact science but I think it gets you into the ballpark. This buck looks to be in the 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 age range. If I had to put it into only one age I would probably go with 3 1/2. This age surprises me. The antler characteristics sure would have made me guess that this buck was at least 4 1/2 and likely a little older. I guess that this is more evidence that antler size alone isn't the best aging characteristic. I was also able to measure the bucks antlers and came up with about 148 inches. I'm not an official scorer so this could change if done by someone that actually knew what they were doing. The bottom line for me is that the score really doesn't matter. This buck is a trophy in my own book and the entire experience was a trophy as well. Below was the first picture we got of this buck back on September 24th and we captured him on camera on about six other occasions over the last month. This same buck walked across the road in front of Ryan on his way to the bus stop a couple of weeks ago. Ryan said the buck was walking behind a doe and crossed the road about 10 yards in front of him and the buck never knew he was there. I saw this buck walk through our yard last Thursday and after spending a couple of hours in the woods on Friday I saw him as I was leaving the woods. 
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