Going with my gut paid off once more. My only plan this morning was to get out and hopefully tag a doe. Right at first light, I loosed an arrow at one—but didn’t notice a few small branches in front of her and ended up missing.
Around 7:15, I spotted what I thought was a yearling doe feeding about 100 yards away at the bottom of the hill. Then, out of nowhere, this giant-bodied deer stepped out. Since this was only my second time out this season—and my first morning hunt—I had forgotten both my rangefinder and binoculars. I zoomed in with my camera and realized he was a really nice buck.
He was hanging out with the smaller doe I’d seen earlier. When the buck started walking from right to left, I decided to hit him with a loud snort-wheeze. He stopped and looked my way. The next thing I knew, he started working his way up the hill, trying to figure out what had made that sound.
He got to about 60 yards on the far side of some hemlocks, so I snort-wheezed again, this time facing the other side of the ridge. That did it—he came in to about 30 yards, quartering toward me, trying to scent-check the area. The wind was blowing uphill, so I thought I was in the clear… until he crossed my entry trail.
He stopped, turned, and started heading back the way he came. Luckily, he gave me a perfect quartering-away shot at about 30 yards. I settled my 25-yard pin center mass and let it fly. I watched the arrow disappear exactly where I was aiming, though I didn’t hear a “whack.” He bolted downhill and vanished behind the hemlocks.
Based on the sound and where I hit him, I felt good about the shot—but without seeing him crash and with no pass-through, I wasn’t sure. The doe’s reaction gave me some confidence; she just stood there looking toward where the buck ran instead of taking off.
After giving the buck about an hour, that same doe actually walked by at 15 yards. This time, I didn’t miss. She crashed within sight, about 50 yards from where I shot.
An hour later, I gathered myself and headed down the hill, hoping to spot the buck. About 40 yards into the trail, I saw a massive body on the ground—he hadn’t gone more than 100 yards.
This deer turned out to be an absolute giant—easily the biggest-bodied buck I’ve ever seen in person. Dragging him out was a two-hour workout by itself. When I finally got him home and on the scale, he weighed 226 pounds with a 22-inch inside spread.
By far the biggest deer I’ve ever taken.
