meatseeker
Senior Member
With all the recent threads here this is why I like antlers. I've killed does over the years but most have been Bucks. From my first spike the size of a #2 pencil and 5" long(and I wouldn't trade it for nothing)to a 177" 18 point(Illinois of course). Why I like the antlers is that hunt is engraved in my mind. The does I killed have been ate and returned to dust. The antlers I have nailed up or mounted,well I can look at them and almost instantly tell you the place I killed it and the rifle caliber or bow used. and many of them the exact date. That first little spike I gut shot and tracked on the morning of November 2nd of 1985 in Monroe county. Frozen feet from my Kmart brahma boots. And the tiny 6 pt I shot at the top of the mountain on double head gap slipping through the white pines after a doe with his head to the ground unaware I was staining 25 foot from him. Seeing the low teen temperatures causing smoke from his nose as if he were smoking a Marlboro Red as it went up into the sunlight. I put the iron sights on his neck as he was troting straight to me. I cracked the .35 off and he bucked and ran towards me and fell dead at my feet, nose plowing the ground like an old turn plow. That was a cold thanksgiving morning in 1988. Dad was there and that's where he killed his 8 pt in 1968 that has hung in his den ever since. So I had just killed a buck on the same mountain top that dad did 20 years earlier. And then got to here his story on his first "big en".
Or the big 9 pt I killed on thanksgiving of 2004 while standing in a old saw mill where Dad took me camping in the late 70,s before they tore out the bridge. Now it's a two mile walk. I remember crossing that dead hemlock covered in ice in the dark to get across the creek and then grabbing laurels to climb 50yrds up the steep bank fighting not to drop my gun cause I had no sling. After a 2 mile hike we stopped to rest at the old saw mill set. And here's comes a doe with a buck tailgating her. I missed that 4 pt standing there beside my brother. After I missed my brother dropped it in his tracks. I was happy for him but I'm not gonna lie I was feeling down cause i missed. 5 minutes later I see horns coming and shot the 9 pt. We killed those at 8:30 and had to drag them 2 miles with the last 25 yards of that wading waist deep across noontootla creek and my legs were numb by the time I got out of the water. I remember that drag well. All we had to eat was a coke,an apple and a frozen snickers bar that we halfway into our long drag. We got back to camp at 4:30 and was starving but ther was a pot of pintos and ham,and a cake of cornbread waiting for us. I could tell you all the details of every one I've killed.
I remember a 12 pt I killed in 2007. I always called mama to tell her when I killed one and as I stood there looking at it and thinking wait till she hears. And then remembering she had passed away that year. Kinda bitter sweet.
Bottom line they are memories that no one can take away from me.
Yes I love the antlers,there a reminder of so many things I got to experience in the woods and most importantly ENJOY!
If you can't remember the small details your missing the big picture of the hunt.
Or the big 9 pt I killed on thanksgiving of 2004 while standing in a old saw mill where Dad took me camping in the late 70,s before they tore out the bridge. Now it's a two mile walk. I remember crossing that dead hemlock covered in ice in the dark to get across the creek and then grabbing laurels to climb 50yrds up the steep bank fighting not to drop my gun cause I had no sling. After a 2 mile hike we stopped to rest at the old saw mill set. And here's comes a doe with a buck tailgating her. I missed that 4 pt standing there beside my brother. After I missed my brother dropped it in his tracks. I was happy for him but I'm not gonna lie I was feeling down cause i missed. 5 minutes later I see horns coming and shot the 9 pt. We killed those at 8:30 and had to drag them 2 miles with the last 25 yards of that wading waist deep across noontootla creek and my legs were numb by the time I got out of the water. I remember that drag well. All we had to eat was a coke,an apple and a frozen snickers bar that we halfway into our long drag. We got back to camp at 4:30 and was starving but ther was a pot of pintos and ham,and a cake of cornbread waiting for us. I could tell you all the details of every one I've killed.
I remember a 12 pt I killed in 2007. I always called mama to tell her when I killed one and as I stood there looking at it and thinking wait till she hears. And then remembering she had passed away that year. Kinda bitter sweet.
Bottom line they are memories that no one can take away from me.
Yes I love the antlers,there a reminder of so many things I got to experience in the woods and most importantly ENJOY!
If you can't remember the small details your missing the big picture of the hunt.
