Newest Pope & Chop Candidate...

[Chuckle12]

So here's the deal... was hunting Saturday morning with a bud of mine (B-80), saw "this" buck walk out at about 6:45 370 yards from the stand. Looked him over, looked to be about a 17-17.5 inch 8 point. Tried to get a shot, but by the time we decided to shoot he was headed fot the tall brush and we couldn't get him to stop for a clean shot. Well, the hunt goes on and low and behold about 15 minutes later out he walks again in roughly the same spot. We look him over quickly and both agree he's the same buck. No way in hell he's getting by us again. Well, of course as soon as I grab the gun he starts making his way back to the tall brush. I get him in the crosshairs as he's moving and am telling B-80 that he's on the move again. Well, B-80 does the ol' tried and true redneck loudass whistle out the window and the buck stops and lifts his head quartering toward us. One quick glance at the horns, "yep, same buck", and ease back on the trigger of the ol' .30-.378. BOOM! B-80 starts saying "Damn, what happened" and I'm sitting there thinking that I missed because he didn't see him go down in the binoculars. Well, we look and find him kicking around 20-30 yards from where I pulled the trigger. We watch him make his last kicks and start the high fives and knuckle bumps. After hunting this stand 5 times, we finally got a shot on a good one. After 10-15 minutes we get down and head towards him. 15 yards from him, my heart drops. This is NOT the same buck we saw earlier. He was a good bit smaller. I was still happy to have gotten him, he is my first buck in 4 or 5 years. I shot him with a .30-.378 at 367 yards. 15" 8 point, 19" main beams, aged by DoubleR2 to be about 2.5 yrs old, gross measurement around 110 inches. Smaller buck than I thought, but still a trophy to me beacuase of the shot I put on him and him being my first buck in so long. He would have been a big boy next year, but he didn't make it and I'm still proud of him.

[teul2]

Congrats.
He kind looks like the one you shot pictures of a few weeks ago.

[Chuckle12]

Wasn't the same one. I compared the pics and the other one was a lot smaller than him. Thet were almost 3 miles apart. The good thing is, I know he has some big brothers out there and he's got a daddy out there somewhere. I was just happy to see a young deer with some good potential at the place. we have had a problem with short brow tines and he looks like he was gonna have plenty of length. Too bad I screwed up and shot him before he had time to breed this year.

[mottlet]

Schit happens. Nice deer on a nice shot. Hard to complain 'bout that.

[B-80]

Nice gun. I bet that thing shoots read good downrange... Ha

[dukbum]

well damn i had to make the pic look good by adding my purty self in thar too good shot dude just glad i wasnt down range of dat ole pee-shooter that yall were shooten i wuz in da duk hole busten me a one duk shy of a one man limit

ps: like dat vintage camo shurt i ment to tell ya that