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- Model: u720SW,S720SW
- Exposure Time: 1/40 sec
- Date/Time Original: 12/23/2006 8:50:04 PM
- Flash: Flash fired, auto
- Focal Length: 9.13 mm
This story and picture was e-mailed to me by my friend Theron, who harvested two very nice bucks in the span of 4 days in Greenville County, SC. Thanks, Donnie.
Fellas,
I got a 175 lb. 11 pointer last night at the very last minutes of light. I was watching 2 small bucks sparring at the edge of a big pasture as it got close to sunset. As they moved around I was watching through the binoculars and the "big one" stepped into view from the left. They were over 200 yards away and the light was fading fast and they were west of me so it was hard to see. I panicked some and remembered the grunt call I had in my pack. I got it and grunted several times like a dominant buck. I looked through binos and he was staring my way, grunted some more and he started walking toward my stand. He came to within about 125 yards and started milling around. I got the scope on him as the other two small bucks walked up near him. I figured it was now or never and squeezed off a shot aiming at his far shoulder as he quartered away at an angle. At the shot the big deer ran off to the left about 50 yards and stopped. The other two small ones milled around and followed him. I was thinking "fall man, fall" as he faded from sight into the shadows along the woodline at the creek. I stared into the binos at the area and saw a white flicker of movement for about 5 seconds at the fence line. I believe it was him struggling to cross over into the woods. After gathering my stuff and my composure, I climbed down and walked out to where I had shot him. By now it was dark. I could not find any blood in the area so I headed to where I thought I saw him cross the fence. Still I could find no blood at the first crossing so I checked the second. No blood either so I shined the light over into the creek thinking I could have missed him altogether and there he lays dead as a hammer on the other side. The problem then was that the creek was flooded by beaver dams way downstream and it is basically a lagoon, about waist deep. I could only see half of his rack through the brush and it looked like a wide 8 pointer. I was happy to get him but actually was fretting having to get him mounted because I hoped it was bigger. (That was a personal goal of mine, to not shoot a buck this year unless he was bigger than what I already had mounted.) I immediately thought of my Dad having a small 10' john boat. I called him and he agreed to drive down and help me out. About 45 minutes later he arrived and we put the boat in my truck, drove way down into the pasture alongside the creek, put the boat in and I paddled across to my buck on the swamp side. That is when I was able to clearly see just what I had shot. GREAT DAY what a buck! That sucker was bigger than I thought. I loaded him in the boat and Pop pulled us back across with the rope we had tied to the boat. Once across we pulled the boat up the bank with the deer in it and almost lost the whole thing. The boat took on about 10 gallons of water and the deer slide almost out. Luckily we were able to get it all up the bank, under the fence and in the truck. After going over to my friend's house who owns the property, my wife and kids coming down to see the deer, taking pictures, taking the deer to the processor/taxidermist and getting home, I hit the bed at about 11pm. This was after rising that morning at 4am to work on a holiday power outage all day and getting home after 3 pm. A full day to say the least. And yes a LUCKY day. Lucky I saw that deer, lucky I hit him, lucky I found him, lucky Pop was home with the boat! Pop told me "what if he had died in the creek and drifted downstream?". The bullet did not exit the deer so there was no blood trail to be found. I may have never found him if things had gone justly slightly different. Long story but a good one I hope. Merry Christmas to all! Theron
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