Thwack16's 12/17/22 6x4

[thwack16]

I never know where to start or how much detail to put into these kill stories, so bear with me. My standards are high and hunting time limited enough that I don't write many anymore anyways.

I kind of finally accepted my current time limitations with small kid and work this year enough to not cast a wide net. Instead, I tried to keep the wanderlust at bay and settled into finding bucks to hunt on the private pieces I have permission on and one near work piece of public.

The piece I found this buck on is a 200-acre flat pine plantation I've had permission on for a few years. It's nothing that would stand out on a map but it's thick and other than a neighbor using a boundary road for easement, relatively unpressured. I've run cams on it and threw a few quick hunts at it over the years but mostly left it alone. This year I did do a 200x20 poor man's plot right in the middle of it and expected that to potentially provide me a chance at a decent buck in January.

I used all my camera resources on my other 3 pieces of private through the summer but pulled one about the time bow season opened and put it on this plot during my lunch break one day. A few weeks later I repeated the lunch break walk and much to my surprise found this buck:

WGI_0549.JPG

WGI_0552.JPG

WGI_0553.JPG

I recognized him, or at least think I recognized him, off of one picture of a heavy horned young deer I got during a rare weeklong freeze up we had in February 2021.

WGI_0011.JPG

I was in the midst of a chase with a bit of a better buck when this buck showed and not far out from a trip out of state so I elected to get a camera back in on him but mostly just let the deer have the place until the rut. I didn't have a good idea of how to kill him on this place with a bow anyway.

I packed a ladder stand in on my lunch break toward the end of November and hung it on the poor man's plot, swapped the camera card, and found he was still crossing the camera periodically.

WGI_0095.JPG

I made my first hunt of the year on the place on the morning of 12/3. Just a flash morning hunt pre-work in a very unobtrusive tree, nothing doing.

On Thursday 12/15, I eased in long before daylight to hunt the ladder on the plot with intentions of staying til 8 am and being slightly late to work. Nothing doing that morning.

On Friday 12/16, I used the east boundary to go all the way around the place and perch on the south side of the place trying to see if he was coming from the neighboring hardwoods and bedding on the place I had permission on. I'd see 11 deer before I got down at 8:30, including a decent three-year-old.

As I was sitting at my truck changing clothes to go into work my dad text pictures of our #1 dead by the neighbors. That's a different story for a different day but it turned all of my focus onto this one.

I was fairly sure of where I could kill this buck the moment I first saw the pictures. I'd somewhat of stumbled across the place during the warm rut last season when I watched two good three-year-olds cruise across this odd break in the pine plantation filled with briars. This little opening is 50x300 going diagonally against the pine rows and nothing but pines and sage grass. I'm still not sure why it's open there, but it is, and it's filled with rubs and scrapes. The exterior is a wall of greenbriers 5-10ft tall.

I went in on the morning of 12/17 super early with hand shears pruning back the briars all the way to the tree I was planning to be in. The day dawned in the low 30s with a southwest wind. My intention was to be on the northeast side of the opening so that i could see into the understory on the downwind side as well as possible. I settled the climber in well over thirty feet and waited on daylight.

Not long after daylight I'd hear a bit of crashing and subsequent blue jay squawks coming from the creek some 300 yards away, but nothing ever materialized.

A few minutes before 8 am I caught a deer picking its way through the understory on my side of the opening about 40 yards away headed down a trail that would take it about 25 yards from me. I shouldered my gun and glanced at the rack but was already positive it was the deer I was looking for. The safety was off and the shot was fired before I could process the moment. On impact the deer hunkered and slanted toward my tree. Another bullet ended the game but was unnecessary.

My dad and brother came and helped cut him up and pack him out, making for a fun morning.

He taped out at 142" making him my best MS buck.

IMG_8423.jpg

IMG_8426 (1).jpg

IMG_8428.jpg

[upwind predator]

Congratulations heck of a buck, and great story.

[Jackson Marsh]

Congrats on a heavy horned brute!

[Dpoole90]

Very nice

[Boogieman1]

Waydago! That’s a stud

[Kokes]

Awesome buck congrats! What a stud!

[greenhorndave]

Great story and congrats!

Love those blade-like main beams.

[Wannabelikedan]

Big ole boy! Well done Thwack

[Bonecrusher101]

What a true MS toad! Thanks for the story, and Hail state!

[Findian]

Congrats on the brute.

[Lockdown]

Oof! What a monster. Congrats!

[stash59]

[Hawthorne]

Congrats! Nice buck and good write up

[backstraps]

What a cool story and buck! Huge Congrats brother!

[Sailfish_WC]

Very nice.
Congrats!