I just capped off my best deer season ever, with my 9th deer of the year! I went hunting with a friend Christmas Eve morning and sat in my favorite stand. It's a ground blind in a small oak bottom with a tiny stream going through it. I got in an hour before daylight and got settled down to wait. It was raining all night and misting rain when we got there. It was a little windy and very cloudy and didn't get enough shooting light until 20 mins later than normal. I didn't see or hear a thing except for some noisy dang crows for the first two hours stealing what little bit of corn I had left. They are pretty fun to watch though, always chasing each other around, throwing leaves around, and just being obnoxious. At almost 9 o'clock on the dot I caught movement to my left and just saw brown and a tail twitching and it was making its way towards the small shooting lane I have. It was too thick to tell exactly what it was, but I went ahead and put on my hearing protection and readied myself. Right before it got to the opening, there is one little clear spot and I trained my binoculars on that area and waited. A few seconds later I saw antlers and I recognized them! It was an older buck that I have had on camera for three years now and I call him the Crab Claw buck because of how his antlers look at the end. He's only a five point but has a good sized body on him and I knew he was at least four years old. I have trail cam pics of him since October of this year in the area but always at night, never during shooting light.
He was extremely cautious coming in. He poked his head out from behind a big cedar, but all I could see was his neck and head. I really don't like taking necks shots, so I just waited. He kept looking all around, he would look at the blind I was in, then at the stupid crows, then behind him. He started to turn around and I thought I wasn't going to get a shot. He took another step towards the shooting lane, but still not enough for a shot. He kept scanning around for a few more agonizing minutes then finally took two more steps and I had a great broad side shot. I cocked the SBH Hunter and sent a Lyman 429640 cast HP (ACWW, Lyman Super Moly Lube, Hornady GC, sized .430 with 2400 powder going a little over 1300 fps) through his lungs from 30 yards. He leaped forward and started to run slowly straight away from me, but I could tell he was hit really well. He went all of 20 yards and I could see him the whole time, then he stopped, did a back flip and he was done. Buck down! There was bits of lung on the ground at the impact site and a blood trail Ray Charles could follow! On cleaning him, I could see I clipped his shoulder on the entrance and it came out just behind the opposite shoulder. The entrance was caliber sized with the exit a good inch in size. I pulled his jawbone and he aged at 5.5 years. Here are some pics of him on the trail camera and how I found him after the shot. I've shot 5 bucks, 4 does, a big hog, and a coyote this season. Deer season ends January 1st, but I went to Colorado to visit with my sister for Christmas and New Years and I will miss the last few days. I was very excited to get this buck because I've seen him since 2011 and this was the first time I've seen a deer on camera, hunted it, and actually was able to kill it. He is not big antler wise but he has character and is an older deer. Just for those wondering, none of the meat from all these deer went to waste. I love eating it and so do several of my neighbors and friends.
Do the links to the two trail pictures work? I was having some issues with those.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xvhe...pzcz8nu/WGI_0015.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5i54...39wec2w/WGI_0016.JPG
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Can y'all see the trail cam pics in those links? He has some small antlers but you can definitely see in the trail pics that he has a big body and neck. And jaw bones don't lie. This is actually the 3rd deer this year over 4 years old. I've never shot more than one or two older deer in a season before. I shot a big 6 pt from this same stand in October who was 4.5 years old with the same gun and a Lyman 429421. Then I shot a giant doe who almost had no teeth, they were worn down so much.
Originally Posted by youngda9
