I posted this on the DWB site and figured I would post it here as well:

Big Buck Hunt, November 19, 2005, 3:45 pm

Friday, November 19 was opening day for IL hunters… it was a cold day to begin with but it was also filled with great anticipation. Having done pre-season scouting and set up several stand locations, I felt ready for the opener.

I was in my climber and set by 5:45 am overlooking a bean field from the southwest corner. I had my .504 Super 91 ready to rock with a BatChief 496gn FirePlug sitting on 85gn of 777 ffg and a veg wad. Didn’t see much at first but starting 6:45 am I saw several does… saw one that was running hard (panting heavily) and thought that maybe a buck was pushing her. I didn’t realize until she was almost passed that she was hit on her left front leg. I would have take her down had I been more observant but she passed into the field edge woods to quickly.

The wind started to pick up and it got colder, about 8:30 am I had had enough of the wind and climbed down. I went and sat on another field in a ladder stand. Ate brunch and the wind shifted… this stand was no longer good to sit in. I went back to my original stand and was set at 11 am. At 11:15 am I see a doe and a small buck leave the field edge trees about 400 yds away… grunting does nothing to turn them my way.

I watch them for the next 20 minutes, now about 800 yds away. My first thought was to stalk them but I argued with myself about myself putting on a stalk. I stayed put and watched them cross the field going north. At that field edge the big buck I had spotted a couple of weeks back joins them… yippee!! I watch them feed along that edge for 30 minutes and then one by one they disappear into the brush on the north end of the field. The big boy vanishes last, right next to a dead fall. I consider getting down again… guessing that he is just bedded down. I argue with myself about myself getting down and I win the argument again.

So I sat in that tree until 3:15 pm with nothing to look at and then it happens… he reappears on the field edge right by the dead fall. It takes him 15 minutes to meander south across the field and enter the south edge wood line approx 400 yds away (the same area the other buck came from). No amount of grunting could turn him… I knew where he was headed, to the south field. A large ditch (small river?) cuts the property in half and he was going to cross the ditch to meet up with the does that come out to feed there.

I decide that there is the slim possibility that he will still come towards me on my side of the ditch because there is about five people (one family) sitting on that field. I decide to wait until 3:45 pm before crawling down out of the tree to see if he crossed the ditch and is now heading this way but on the other bank. At 3:45 I unbuckle my climber from the tree, get my feet strapped into it, and get ready to lower my Super91 (I waited until the last moment to lower it down)… I glance up and there he is trotting on the opposite bank of the ditch (he had obviously winded the family) and was about to pass out of my very limited shooting lane.

At this point… I PANIC!!! I immediately grunt, he stops and looks directly at me, my 91 is pointing the wrong way and the secondary safety is on (as I was getting prepared to decap, thank God I hadn’t), I undo the secondary and primary safeties, shoulder the 91, it dawns on me that I can’t turn or get settled into a better shooting position because my feet are strapped into the climber (he was just off the back side of my right shoulder and I shoot right handed), I settle the cross hairs just behind his shoulder and can’t figure out why he is so small, aagghhh, I am on 1.5x, so I pull off of him like a dummy and see if I can dial it up, forget it, 1.5x it is, I settle just behind the shoulder, remember the range to that bank is 86 yds, no adjustments needed, I just can’t get comfortable, he takes a step, I grunt again, settle and fire!! I have yet to hear a thwack on a deer and today was no different… maybe I just get to excited, who knows? At the shot I see the deer turn and run full tilt straight south into the south field, his tail is down so I know I hit him… the question now is, how well?

Shortening a long story… I found hair, pink frothy blood and lung pieces, dark blood and liver pieces where he was standing. 10 yards away I found stomach material. Everything was small drib drabs and hard to track until I got 30 yds into the south field and then there was stomach material all over the left side and some lung stuff occasionally on the right side of the trail. The field was filled with corn stalks which made it hard to see where he might have fallen… I did find him though, about 150 yds from the initial hit. The rack is bigger than I initially thought; I think it will be my 2nd biggest...


Pics:


Sat map of area and locations.


Me and the buck.


Close up of the buck.


Buck and the reason it met it's maker.


Trajectory through the buck, started just behind the right shoulder.


Entry


Exit


Entry


Exit

Other than the sticker this is the most symetrical rack I have gotten. It also has a hole at the base of one of the brow tines. He is know at the processors, snack sticks , jerky, brats, chops, steaks, and burger will be had from the big fella! He weighed right at 160 dressed.

Post mortem showed that the right lung, liver, and the guts were hit. My wife said I watch too much CSI when she saw that I was sticking that broom handle into the entry and exit wounds. The exit was definitely bigger. I had to slice the hide a bit on the entry side.

It did not register that he was standing at an angle instead of broadside. Had you asked me immediately following the shot I would have said broadside. Everything seemed to happen so quickly!

Gutting him out was a bit more smelly than usual, but I at least got to gut something out... He is my second largest rack but is the widest rack if that makes any sense.

Just to let you know what a praying wife can do for you... I called her from the stand after seeing this buck and the small buck bed down and told her about them. Later that afternoon she was sitting at the computer and prayed that I would get the big buck. She prayed that prayer at 3:40 pm and I shot the buck at 3:45 pm. I got my biggest buck 5 minutes after she prayed 3 years ago. I keep telling her she needs to pray for the big bucks for me more often!

Good luck to those still hunting! I have one more tag to fill either in the 2nd season or ML.

Nice buck! My question is why didn't you use the Knight disc elite I traded you for this hunt? Is it not shooting well?

Migra

I will hunt with the Elite in the 2nd Firearm season, Dec 1-4... and it is shooting just fine!

I will probably use my White Elite Hunter M98 in ML season if I don't get anything in 2nd season. I only have one tag left.

Glad to hear the rifle shoots. I'd hate to sell/trade someone a lemon. Once again congratulations on a nice buck and a great story. Loved the pictures too.

Migra