Well, I promised a couple folks I would tell the story of this deer hunt and buck I took, despite the embarassment factor, so here we go.

It was the next to last week of season here in GA, Christmas time. Most of our hunting is on a tract my company owns, which will get developed over the next 7 or 8 years. The area has had lot's of dairy and poultry farming but very little agriculture, yet despite this, this region is known for good quality deer, the majority of which came from DNR trades with Wisconsin for deer to be transplanted to this area.

Deer on this tract were VERY responsive to vocalizations, which is not common in much of Georgia, due to overly high doe to buck ratios. We had called in, rattled in, and just generally seen a lot of vocalizations, and response to on this tract.

One of my good friends and I met about 1:00 at the property, and decided to go ahead and hunt, we had planned on just packing up some stuff around the camp, but the wind had laid down, and it was pretty cold--which we liked. Pretty cold meant in the 20's, which is pretty cold for GA in December, and to top it off we were hunting a river bottom, where the moisture made it always seem a good bit colder.

The stand I went to was a ladder stand in a beautiful pocket of mixed hardwoods and poplars with the ocassional giant pine, and great views, 100 plus yards in almost all directions.

Wildlife was very inactive until the withcing hour--30 to 40 mins before sundown. Almost like hitting an alarm, when it neared the 40 mins til dusk time frame, the woods just came alive. Walking about sounds of all sorts of critters, I knew at least a couple of the sound patterns were deer, just out of visual range. It was very dry in Ga last year, and this was contributing to being able to hear the critters from so far away, on top of the wind being absent.

I caught movement at about 125 yards out, and there were 3 bucks walking in single file. The first one had really good mass, but that was about all I could tell of him. The other two were definitely less than 3 1/2 year olds, so not shooters on this property. As I was focused on these 3, something caught my peripheral vision, as I was turned around facing the tree, the movement was actually behind me and to my left. I leaned in a little tighter to the tree, and pivoted my head against the old oak, and made out three whitetails at about 60 yards out, slipping up a dry creekbed. I finally eased back around into the sitting position, and enjoyed watching two fat does and a spunky young forkhorn bounce around, grabbing up some lingering oak acorns--mostly post and pin oak.

As I was watching these deer the three bucks--now at my back, kept easing down the slight hill behind me, working toward the creek bottom the other deer had come up. They were pinning me down! I heard the unmistakable sound of the scrambling squirrel, and spun around to catch a SOLID BLACK fox squirrel jump up on the base of a huge red oak. I really thought about shooting one of the 270 BST's at 150 gr at him, but was just scared it would disintegrate him--I really want a solid black one like that for a trophy!

A lingering sound to my right, and behind me slightly, got me to looking at the 3 bucks again. I finally ID'd the persistant sound--it was a damn armadillo. I hate those things in the GA woods, Texas OK, but not here!
The lead buck crossed my wind about 90 yards out and froze. I had done a good job with my scent, but he caught a whiff of something--maybe it was the damn armadillo. At any rate, that gave me plenty of time to study him at 10x and he was definitely an older buck. I steadied my self against the tree and stood up. I looked around for a bit to see if there were any other deer, and shazam, there were 4 more does out at about 75 yards, feeding with the little buck and 2 does who had come up the creek the bigger buck was just easing up.

I decided to take the shot at the buck, leaned back into the tree, steadied off, and squeezed the trigger. I saw nothing in the wake of the recoil, and heard nothing running off either, I was sure he was down. I've seen it a lot, but it amazes me how sometimes the entire forest clears out at the report of a rifle, and sometimes nothing seems affected at all. This was one of the latter cases. If anything, at the shot more deer and other critters seemed to come into the area. It was getting dark, and this stand is a good ways back from where you can get a truck, and the deer was another bit further past where I was relative to where you could get to in a truck. I got down, and realized I had left my pack in the truck. No water and of course--no light.

No worries though, I needed to get back to the main road and meet my hunting partner anyways. He had taken my truck and gone on to his spot. As it turned out, he was waiting for me when I got to the road, he had heard my shot, and came down out of his stand about tem minutes after.
He had a smart ass smile on his face, and my pack in his hand--'thirsty' he said. I grabbed my bottle of water out of my pack and took a swig. We walked into the stand and then out towards my buck. Short version, about twenty minutes of searching around for the deer, it was DRT, I just didn't have anything to mark the spot with---TAKE YOUR PACK TO STAND DUMMY---

We drug this rascal down an old loggin road on the other side of the creek til we were about to die. Turned out that this guy weighed about 230 lbs. (live weight--we didn't field dress him) which is HUGE for a middle GA whitetail.

We walked about another 15 minutes out, and got my truck, which we bounced around and got to the logging road and starting backing down it. I went a pretty good ways, and asked my partner to get out and see where the deer was--the road was pretty grown up. He started down the logging road, and got about 50 yards behind me and I started backing up again, almost immediately I heard something scraping and popping under my Tundra. I hollered at my buddy and said 'what the hell am I hitting ?' and he said 'I don't know, but it doesn't sound good--better pull back up' I did, and when I got about 10 yards back up the road, I could see it was my deer I had driven over. I hollered at my friend again, and he started dying laughing, and said 'don't blame me, you parked right on top of him you dumbass'. Of course he was right. What an idiot! I knew I was close to him but damn! I busted off about 5 scorable inches of antler, but left him just like that for the skull mount I had done.

We really felt the cold as we finished loading him and getting him back to camp, where we just hung him til morning, started a fire, and had a couple of Jim Beams and....well what a great way to spend one of that last days of hunting for the season, we were both gonna go back home that night, well me to a hotel, but my friend lives about 20 minutes from the property, but decided to just stay at the old cabin, and tell tales and drink more Beam--probably too much, but we were safe in the forest.

Here he is:




He grossed in the high 120's, good mass throughout the rack. Would have gone around 134 or so without the 'truck treatment' A very good buck for the area.
Not exactly what I always thought of as a 'Truck Buck', but I bought a Toyota key ring I plan to hang on one of the remaining points on this guy to memoralize the hunt

Fish: great story...that's what it's all about!

I suspect you'll be telling that story for some time to come.

Or at least your buddy will be telling it!

When I read the title, I thought maybe you hit a live deer with your truck. Never guessed it would be a story about running over a dead deer.

Great story, but did you have the "Beam" before you scored the deer?

The picture may be deceiving, but I am not seeing 120" of antler on that skull.

Great story. I got a good chuckle.

Don,

Great story, and equally great Buck!!

Thanks for posting the account.

Don

Thanks guys--sometimes you just have to tell the whole deal to see the humor in it, and I do think my buddy likes telling it more than me.

Yeah Jeff, I actually agree with you on that pic, it's not very good for some reason??? The thing has absolutely great mass, I'll recap some numbers later---Beam was about 4 months before scoring! (by taxidermest)

***And Jeff you are sort of right!*** I pullled the score sheet and it scores 124 7/8 as she sits--would have only been around 130 gross without the 'truck treatment'

IS 14
MB 23.................24
G1 4 4/8..............5 1/8
G2 6..................7
G3 6..................5
H1 5 2/8..............5 2/8
H2 4 4/8..............4 3/8
H3 3 4/8..............3 4/8
H4 2 4/8..............2 3/8

55 2/8..............56 5/8 + 14 = 124 7/8 Gross

Hey Don, We use a slightly different "tenderizer" method where I Hunt. But if the Tundra Tenderizer works for you, who am I to say do it otherwise.
-----

I'll take a Buck like that with a great memorable story over a BIG one with a story that goes:
I went Hunting, Killed this Buck and brought it home.

Do you recommend a specific set of Tires for the Tenderizing?

Fish: Don't feel bad a friend of mine before he had his cataract surgery ran over a dead deer on the highway while he was heading to the deer hunting area. He said he just couldn’t see the dam deer luckily it didn’t mess up his car.

Nice mount.

quote:

Originally posted by Fish30114:
***And Jeff you are sort of right!*** I pullled the score sheet and it scores 124 7/8 as she sits--would have only been around 130 gross without the 'truck treatment'

IS 14
MB 23.................24
G1 4 4/8..............5 1/8
G2 6..................7
G3 6..................5
H1 5 2/8..............5 2/8
H2 4 4/8..............4 3/8
H3 3 4/8..............3 4/8
H4 2 4/8..............2 3/8

55 2/8..............56 5/8 + 14 = 124 7/8 Gross

Damn, I'm good. I had him guestimated at 122-123".

No matter, he is a nice deer!

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Sullivan:
Great story, but did you have the "Beam" before you scored the deer?

The picture may be deceiving, but I am not seeing 120" of antler on that skull.

I had the same reaction, until I decided that the electrical outlet on the wall must be a miniature! Pictures can be really decieving!

HC, I like that spin a little better--'tenderizing' I have the Michelin all terrains on there, they did a good job! The skid plates probably did the business on the tines! Lucky I didn't pop a tire!

Jeff, I know you are, I've seen your estimates before! I need to school up on my photographic skills--or more accurately lack of skills!


The Taxidermist did this skull for me, and left the bottom jaw on there, it doesn't really have any attachment left after all ligaments etc. are gone, so he shot a couple of spots of hot glue on there. One of them cut loose a little while back, and I walked in my shop and he had one Jaw hanging down--spooked me for a second--but I kind of like leaving the bottom jaw on.
Next step for me is to build proper Euro panels for the several skull mounts I have around.....