Bowhunter Matt
Senior Member
Got a few pictures of this deer in early December and he disappeared, I thought someone had killed him. Boy was I surprised to get him on camera again this year. He was a 10 point last year and I would have shot him in a minute, but man am I glad I didn't. He grew into a 14 point for this season. He broke a point off his right brow tine just before the season started.
I was getting day time pictures of him everyday, about 2 weeks before the season he disappeared again, no more pictures anywhere on our lease. The Monday after opening day I moved all my cameras to new locations trying to find him, and I did. he had moved to the back end of our lease and had gone nocturnal. for the next 2 week I got over 500 pictures of him all after dark or just before daylight.
my brother and I hunted him as hard as we could with out putting to much pressure on him. Wednesday at lunch I called my brother and told him that I had an idea for him so he could kill Lucky 13 the coming Saturday morning. we both agreed it was a good plan and that it should work as long as the east winds held up. I told my brother I was gonna hunt him one more time that evening and then leave him alone until Saturday.
when I got off work Wednesday I went home and got ready to go but took my time getting to the lease. once there I parked in a different spot than I normally do, and walked a different route to the area I was hunting for him. once I got tot he tree was had been climbing I decided to change that too. I walked up the hill and found some white oaks dropping acorns(which hadn't been dropping yet) I decided that's where I would climb and hope for the best. by the time I got up the tree it was 545pm and I was sweating like a race horse. all I could think was I would lucky to see a doe much less 13. Around 715 I decided to use my can call a couple times and then put it away. Thinking there is no way he would be ready to react to a can call.
5 minutes later I see a deer walking towards me coming up the hill from the tree I had been climbing. I thought it was a doe cause it was all over the place and appeared to be feeding. then I realized it was walking where I had been walking, and then I saw horns, and I thought there is no way its 13. But it was! I quickly stood up and got my bow in hand. and started trying to pick the spot I was gonna shoot. the closer he got the less shooting lanes I had and he some how managed to not go through any of them. he got to about 10 yards from the tree I was up, made his final mistake. he stopped and started eating acorns, and finally turned broad side for a nice easy shot. I let the arrow fly and watched to hit him a little high in his left shoulder, right where I aimed. he dropped to his chest and mule kicked one time and then bulldozed for about 30 yards and just out of sight.
I'm now shacking and going crazy trying to get my brother to answer his phone. which he would not. know I had made a great shot on him I climbed down, so I wouldn't try out my safety harness by accident. Once on the ground I called my brother again still no answer. called my son no answer, called my wife...........no answer. by now I'm going nuts I want to tell someone what I've done and no one will answer the phone!
Finally my brother calls me back, and i'm sure he thought at first that someone was trying to kill me, or at least chasing me. I was so excited I could hardly talk. once I finally got the story out, he was as excited as I was. I then started looking for blood while on the phone but couldn't focus on both so I told him I would call him back once I had found the buck. I got back on the blood trail and went about 10 yards and looked ahead of me and could see the white belly! the beast was dead right where I had seen him disappear.
my son came and helped me drag him to the truck and load him up. there was a big thunderstorm coming so there wasn't much time for picture taking but we managed a couple and the headed to the processor. got a couple more pictures once a the processor. had the buck caped out and turned into jerky and bacon burger. He weighed 183 pounds while not the biggest bodied deer I've killed he is by far the biggest racked buck I've ever killed, and it was a hunt I will never forget.
I was getting day time pictures of him everyday, about 2 weeks before the season he disappeared again, no more pictures anywhere on our lease. The Monday after opening day I moved all my cameras to new locations trying to find him, and I did. he had moved to the back end of our lease and had gone nocturnal. for the next 2 week I got over 500 pictures of him all after dark or just before daylight.
my brother and I hunted him as hard as we could with out putting to much pressure on him. Wednesday at lunch I called my brother and told him that I had an idea for him so he could kill Lucky 13 the coming Saturday morning. we both agreed it was a good plan and that it should work as long as the east winds held up. I told my brother I was gonna hunt him one more time that evening and then leave him alone until Saturday.
when I got off work Wednesday I went home and got ready to go but took my time getting to the lease. once there I parked in a different spot than I normally do, and walked a different route to the area I was hunting for him. once I got tot he tree was had been climbing I decided to change that too. I walked up the hill and found some white oaks dropping acorns(which hadn't been dropping yet) I decided that's where I would climb and hope for the best. by the time I got up the tree it was 545pm and I was sweating like a race horse. all I could think was I would lucky to see a doe much less 13. Around 715 I decided to use my can call a couple times and then put it away. Thinking there is no way he would be ready to react to a can call.
5 minutes later I see a deer walking towards me coming up the hill from the tree I had been climbing. I thought it was a doe cause it was all over the place and appeared to be feeding. then I realized it was walking where I had been walking, and then I saw horns, and I thought there is no way its 13. But it was! I quickly stood up and got my bow in hand. and started trying to pick the spot I was gonna shoot. the closer he got the less shooting lanes I had and he some how managed to not go through any of them. he got to about 10 yards from the tree I was up, made his final mistake. he stopped and started eating acorns, and finally turned broad side for a nice easy shot. I let the arrow fly and watched to hit him a little high in his left shoulder, right where I aimed. he dropped to his chest and mule kicked one time and then bulldozed for about 30 yards and just out of sight.
I'm now shacking and going crazy trying to get my brother to answer his phone. which he would not. know I had made a great shot on him I climbed down, so I wouldn't try out my safety harness by accident. Once on the ground I called my brother again still no answer. called my son no answer, called my wife...........no answer. by now I'm going nuts I want to tell someone what I've done and no one will answer the phone!
Finally my brother calls me back, and i'm sure he thought at first that someone was trying to kill me, or at least chasing me. I was so excited I could hardly talk. once I finally got the story out, he was as excited as I was. I then started looking for blood while on the phone but couldn't focus on both so I told him I would call him back once I had found the buck. I got back on the blood trail and went about 10 yards and looked ahead of me and could see the white belly! the beast was dead right where I had seen him disappear.
my son came and helped me drag him to the truck and load him up. there was a big thunderstorm coming so there wasn't much time for picture taking but we managed a couple and the headed to the processor. got a couple more pictures once a the processor. had the buck caped out and turned into jerky and bacon burger. He weighed 183 pounds while not the biggest bodied deer I've killed he is by far the biggest racked buck I've ever killed, and it was a hunt I will never forget.
Attachments
Last edited:
...I may have picked the wrong team mates. 
