A little background and story on this buck.
It started last year, i was out looking for bears and hopefully some elk for my dads buddies muzzy hunt. Once the elk hunt started i sent them back into an area i thought might hold elk, low and behold they got on some nearby, but nothing came of it. When i got up there they say, by the way, we found a shed over there. I look at it and am like daaang, thats a stud buck. I held it in my hand and told my pops "im going to kill this buck". So fast forward to april ish, i start throwing cams out in different areas, not getting much as im scrolling through photos we catch one buck with fat little bases,and im like, that has to be him. So over the next few months him and his buddy come in every couple weeks, nothing that you can pattern. The last photos i got before season were a couple weeks before, he looked like a great buck but we didnt realize how many inches hed pack on in the next few weeks.
So once season started we pretty much decided that sitting wasnt an option. We started glassing and turned up a good buck, definitely a shooter, so my dad made a stalk and tried to get on him, but it didnt work out. Then that evening about a mile from the cameras we glassed up a toad buck with a smaller buddy. At the time we had no idea it was the buck we had on camera, i just knew i wanted to kill him. So the next morning we put a stalk on him, it didnt work out but i backed off early enough that i didnt push him too much.
At this point i figured the only way to get this buck is spot and stalk, and i had the time with my work schedule but i didnt have anyone i could trust to be my glassers that had the same time off as me. After labor day weekend the deer were hanging low, glassed up a doe right before last light, and not much else after that. I had to be careful with who i was talking with because i had some buddies that i was a little too conveying with info and they were looking hard for my spot, which didnt set well with me.
After a few days of work and the crowds gone, i got back out there, and figured with no spotters my only good chance was sitting my blind. As i sat my blind and checked cams i realized that buck came in WHILE i was at work...twice... at that point i figured he wouldnt come back for a few weeks atleast. But for the next 4 days i sat, defeated and annoyed i was ready to pack out and leave.
It was 2:30 when i was texting and peaked out of the blind and the buck was just standing there on the salt. I slowly grabbed my bow. The buck knew something was up, the wind had been bad all day, blowing all over. He slowly turned around and walked away, i drew back and he took a couple more steps and stopped, i put my 30 on him and released, i saw the arrow sticking out waaaayyy far forward, i was nervous. Made a few calls and had a buddy come help track.
The funny thing is, i thought i shot the smaller buck (which was still a 95-100" buck), it all happened so fast, the entire time i thought i shot the smaller one. I was like well they knew something was up and the big buck never comes in first.
When i got out of the blind i realized i shot through a branch which is why my arrow was so far forward. As were tracking him i thought i bumped him, turned out to be the smaller buck and we were looking at him like why is he walking fine, this is so weird. So as im trying to get a closer look at him i smell something rank, i turned around and 10 yards behind me the big buck was piled up under a tree. Was so unreal to see him down, i couldnt believe it was the big one. From where i last stopped looking and called a friend he was only about 40 or so yards away.
