Who all got a Trophy this year....Follow up from an earlier post

[Dearhunter61]

All,

I posted a thread before the season started and it asked what you all considered a trophy to be. There were a lot a great responses to that thread so I was wondering now after this season is basically over for most of us if any of you got a trophy this year? If so what about it made it a trophy this year?

I did get a trophy this year! I actually feel like I got two of them. The first is a Nine pointer with a 17 inch inside spread. Real nice buck and the nicest rack I have ever taken. That is the first part of why now the rest.

This is the first year for me to hunt on the lease I am on. I joined it and joined 7 other hunters who hunt this place. I did not know any of them when I joined. It was the one thing that provided some trepidation as far as getting on this lease in the beginning. But now that I have met them and spent a hunting season with them it was a great decision. They are all good guys. Pretty unusual to get that many hunters together and all of them be pretty good. Inevitably there will always be a jerk in the mix but not here! So the whole season was a trophy season to me. Got a couple of cool bucks and made some friends.

Now back to the buck. I had passed on a nice nine pointer earlier in the season hoping that I might get a shot at a ten pointer that I saw the week before the season started. It was the week after Thanksgiving and this was my second week of vacation I had scheduled this year during deer season. After seeing the nine point that I had past on I had not seen another shooter buck since. I was beginning to get concerned. Why? Well I spent a LOT of money this year to hunt there. The cost of the lease and then everything it cost to get set up was a little more than I had planned and to get the feeling I might not get a good buck was started to seep into my mind.

So it was the evening hunt on Dec 1, a Monday, I was watching all the deer around me. I had a nice 8 pointer, not a shooter though, to my left and a real big cull buck at my feeder to my left. It only had 4 points, no brow tines, and had a spread of about 18-19 inches. It was the one I wanted to shoot as my cull but needed to make sure the owner was ok with it so I did not shoot it.

I was looking back to my right when all of a sudden I saw movement from the left. I swirled around and there down the left side of a shooting lane I had cleared out was my nine point! My heart started pounding! I grabbed my binocs and as soon as I raised them to me eyes and got a better look I put them down and grabbed my rifle. I raised it only to bang the tripod holding my camera! AGH! So I had to set my rifle down...ease my camera out of the way and finally was able to get my rifle up. By this time the buck had started walking right toward my stand but was doing so hugging the left side of the shooting lane. Man I was worried he would turn to my left and be gone! I tried to stay patient and wait........finally he made a turn and turned to my right providing a great side view and shot! I put the crosshairs on his heart area and fired...BOOM! He TOOK OFF! Uh oh...I missed....No way I could have missed....he was tooo close! BUT HE TOOK OFF!....none of the other game I have taken with my 6.5x55 Swede had done anything but fell in their tracks! Oh no! I quickly ejected the spent shell and popped another in...then the buck turned back toward the left and that is when I saw it....I LARGE red spot on his left side. It was gigantic! I had hit him in the heart. The bullet just did not hit any bone. At this point I relaxed just a bit. I immediately called my father-in-law. my long time hunting buddy, and the first thing out of his mount was how big is he...How could he hear the shot? He was over 350 miles away, I told him how big he was and then explained what had happened. I asked him if I should immediately go after him or give him some time. He asked me how dark it was...it was getting late the sun had already went behind the hills in the distance. He asked me if I saw where he fell...nope. He said he thought I had hit him in the heart and rather than take a chance on not finding him in the dark to go ahead and see if I could track him. Well I got out of my stand still talking to my father-in-law and found the spot where the bullet had hit the buck. Blood was sprayed everywhere. I knew immediately now that he had not ran far and told my Luther, my father-in-law, the same. He agreed. So I started following the trail and did not look five minutes when I saw him about 40 yards ahead! I walked up to him and he was done. He looked majestic! What a beautiful buck! And to top it off I was able to share some of it with Luther! That made it all the more special. As you all know this is when the work really starts! So I hung up with my father-in-law and headed to get my truck. The next day I took it to the processor and then the cape and atlers to the taxidermist to have it mounted!

The other buck I kind of consider a trophy is a relatively small 6 pointer. Why you ask is it a trophy? The main reason is because he was still in velvet! I have always wanted to get one in velvet and now I had!

So now the question is did you get one? If so what makes it a trophy?

 

[hogdogs]

Just finally bought my license yesterday (yep money is that tight here) so I have until mid feb to get some meat in the freezer. Has to have 4 inches of horn to be a buck and any and all that fall to my guns will be a trophy. Hangin' the heads on the pine tree trunks...
Brent

 

[texfar]

Got Mine

I got my 10-12 point this year, he just didn't know it. Posted before I let him walk... my management thing this year. He just ghosted in from who knows where at first light. Picked up the binocs and was not enough light. Put my Shepard scope on him and wow! He looked more like a South Texas deer than a Hill Country deer. Through the scope I could count 10 easy, but light was not good. I think he had two more tines because the shape of the rack I could not see 140 yds or so and just standing there. Flipped the safety off, light touch on the trigger, good hold for neck shot then flipped the safety back on. Watched him through the scope for about 4 minutes then he just walked off. had never seen that one before period prior to season during my times home.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

I got my first antlered buck with a gun. Against all odds, I've hunted 17 years, taken about 18 deer with a gun and several with a bow and none I got with the gun had horns. He was only a 4, should have been 6 but apparently didn't want the other 2. Made me feel good, that's what makes a trophy.

 

[12GaugeShuggoth]

The trophy this season for me was my first bow-kill. This being my first season hunting with a bow, I didn't really set any huge expectations for myself. I figured if nothing else at least I'd be sitting in the woods, regardless of whether or not I made a kill. I didn't see very many deer through the early part of October, and was starting to become discouraged.

Then while I was sitting up a tree in my climber at the end of October, an 8 point buck walks on through. Rain had kept me from hearing him approach, and I was so afraid that I'd spook him before I got full draw. I stood up slowly and watched him through the peep-hole as I held the string back, and tried to call and make him stop long enough for the shot. He didn't want any of that though, and just kept on marching. So I held my sights to the left of a holly tree he was about to walk behind, and when I saw his front shoulder emerge I sent a Rage 2 blade broadhead out to intercept him.

Ended up being a full pass through double lung shot, and it was a fun tracking job in the rain and at dark. Followed him mostly by his tracks in to a reed thicket along the edge of the swamp I was set up at.

 

[bufordtjustice]

I am pretty sure I already posted this here but I am going to do it again just to be sure. I finally got a "trophy" this year. After several half-hearted attempts at really paying my dues during deer season, I got serious and put in the hours. For me, that entails around 6 hours a day of actual hunting for a full week. On the second Saturday of rifle season, about 30 minutes from sunset was when I got this one. My Dad found me as I was walking back to the truck and told me where he had seen a decent buck hiding below our pond dam near some cedars. He had decided not to take a shot because he only had a pistol with him at the time.

We went to the location and sure enough, he was still there. My Dad, who found him, was cool enough to let me shoot him. He is a great guy. I dropped the buck from around 35 yards with one shot. The deer was concealed from the neck forward behind a cedar tree or at least I think he thought he was. His entire side was in the open. I at first thought he might already be wounded but after field dressing, my bullet was the only one present. Upon reflection, I think he had probably ran a long way and was worn out and simply took his chances at laying up.

What makes it a trophy to me is twofold. First, a nice 8 pt (I believe he scored 132) is nothing to sneeze at, especially since he is the biggest one I have ever killed. Second, I was side by side with my Dad and it doesn't get any better than that. He is over 60 now, a DAV and we don't get to spend a ton of time together anyway.

The first photo includes the 1895G I used and the second is of the skull sitting in my Dad's garage after I had it cleaned. Now, it is hanging prominently from the wall in my library area, much to the chagrin of my wife. The only complaint I had was the damaged brow tine but the ol' boy looked to be a fighter.

I can guarantee that even if I get a bigger deer which may or may not be easy to do, this one will be held above the others for sentimental reasons.

 

[Oneholewonder]

Deerhunter,

Congrats on bagging your first trophy rack buck!!! Great feeling isn't it???

I'm 45 and up until 7 years ago I'd killed a lot of deer but the best buck I shot was a nice 6 pointer. I pretty much shot the first deer that came by and then switched over to shooting the first buck that came by and they usually weren't big.

So seven years ago I made up my mind to shoot a real wallhanger. I made up my mind to pass on everything else. The first year of my quest I passed up at least 25 does and small bucks and shot at and missed (shotgun w/iron sights) for various reasons three 130 class rack bucks including one that I snuck up on while bedded down. That was it! I was hooked on trophy buck hunting. That year I ended the season without tagging a buck and upgraded my gear to a rifled shotgun with scope. The next year I bagged my wallhanger with my new rig. A 240 pound 9 point with 22" inside spread!!!

Every year since I've hunted exclusively for rack bucks and passed on everything else. It's amazing how many of the big boys you see once you let the does and small bucks go.

This year's rack buck was my heaviest bodied deer yet weighing in at 215 pounds dressed and 255 on the hoof. He was a real horse. He's a 7 point with thick beams and an 18.5 inch spread. I passed up a lot of deer including three other bucks waiting on this guy. He came out from the woods to the edge of the field I hunt one afternoon with six other deer. Initially, from my blowdown I only saw a spike and doe. After studying those two deer for a while in my binocs I decided there might be other deer nearby that I couldn't see hiding behind brush. The deer I could see were 300 yards away or so. So I put a stalk on the deer and changed my field of view and closed the distance by about 75 yards. I put my binocs up and saw two other does and a forkhorn I had passed up earlier in the week. So now I had eyes on five deer including two bucks. I kept searching for the rack buck with my binos with my Win Mod 70 30-06 on my shoulder. Then I caught movement in my peripheral vision well away from the other group of deer. I put down the binos for a second and saw a huge buck. Threw up my rifle and put the buck in the scope and saw it was a shooter. The buck was rutting and trotting on the inside edge of a timber line. He was 175 yards away so there was no way I was going to take a running shot but I tracked him in my scope and told myself if he stops for just a second I'm going to smash him in the shoulder. He covered about 75 yards, came to a gap in the tree line that I thought he was going to run through to safety and he put on the brakes broadside to me and looked back in the direction of the other deer!

Big mistake! I was right on his shoulder and the second after he stopped I pulled the trigger and BAM! He dropped in his tracks!!!! I put up my binocs and he was laying down but alert with his head up looking around. I didn't know how bad he was hit and didn't want to push him or have to chase him so I put on another stalk and closed the gap by another 25 yards and put him in the crosshairs and finished him off.

I watched him in my binocs for about five minutes and he was laid out and not moving so I knew he was gone. When I got up to him he was an absolute horse. His neck was huge and he was 255 live weight and I could barely move him! I had made a 175 yard offhand shot (my longest to date) and hit him exactly where I was aiming. My 165 grain UltraMax BT entered the nearside shoulder and fragmented breaking his front shoulder then what was left of the bullet exited the offside shoulder and broke the other shoulder which is why he dropped instantly on the first shot.

Welcome to the world of trophy buck hunting Deerhunter!!!! The most exciting game on earth! Now that you got a taste there's no turning back!!!