Outstanding buck and story!!! Congrats and thanks for sharing

Outstanding buck and story!!! Congrats and thanks for sharing

nice buck, congrats

Story...

I wasn't even going to hunt today, but a buddy drove in from Blanco, so I met him out there. I only have 1 stand as my 2nd one got destroyed in a flood and I haven't replaced it yet. Just thought to myself I'd sit in the river bottom (creek, technically) and see if anything was moving. Have a feeder going, but sat a ways away. Threw some random corn out about 70 yards in front of me.

It literally was not even 5 minutes before a pretty decent 9-pt was on the corn. I had spooked a couple of does on my way into the woods, and I think they're rutting right now, which is late for my area, but it's been really warm. Anyhow, the 9pt was legal, but pretty small bodied, so I passed on him. He spooked about 5 minutes in and ran off, and I sort of regretted letting him go, but whatever. This is where it gets interesting.

Not 20 minutes after the 9 left, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. This is flood plain timber with tons of palmettos and underbrush, so it's tough to see further than about 50 yards. I watched an obvious deer's body for about 30 seconds before it picked up its head where I could see it, and it was (for my area) a really, really big buck. Heavy, dark, gnarly antlers with really good length. I'm not talking a South Texas stud here, but a 130-140 class mature buck, which is very large for my area. He didn't seem like he noticed me and was walking in a direction that would put him in a clearing about 70 yards in front of me, so I got my shooting sticks ready. He disappeared behind some brush back in the forest en route to the clearing and then just never reappeared. Not sure if he got the drop on me and turned around or just decided to go deeper in the woods, but I never saw him again. Very disheartening. I thought about getting up and putting a stalk on, but in these woods, they see you before you see them 100% of the time. Or at least that happens to me. Never works.

So I decided to just sit and see if maybe some pigs would come through, or at worst, I could just enjoy the woods and maybe my buddy would get a deer. He was about 600 yards off hunting an open pasture and a wood line on another creek. Once again, there was almost no break until the next deer.

I was looking at my phone like a moron when I glanced up and saw a deer body was on the random corn I had thrown. His head was down and it seemed like he wasn't really interested in the corn as much as the scent the first buck had left, and he was clearly very nervous. He looked up straight at me and I knew instantly he was a nice buck. I also knew instantly that he instantly knew I was there, because his ears perked up, he stamped his hoof, and was very clearly about to make a break for it. I had failed to pull the trigger on a neck shot on a MONSTER 9 point in Sabinal 2 years ago wanting a broadside shot and regretted it horribly when the buck ran straight at my before breaking into the brush at 10 yards never presenting a good shot. I decided I'd take the neck shot now or never.

Pulled the gun up free hand, found his throat patch, pulled...he jumped and took off right before I pulled the trigger, though I did fire. I watched him run off, heard him blow 4-5 times, heard him clearing brush for quite a ways. Got a text from my buddy: "Sounded like a miss". I agreed. Never heard any impact.

Went and checked for blood. Not 1 drop. Nowhere. Not 1 piece of hair. Started doing circles around where I'd seen him run. Nothing. At all.

If he hadn't started his retreat just prior to my trigger pull, I'd have thought there was a chance. But I honestly believed I had flat whiffed. He just sorta trotted off blowing like they do. And then there's the whole lack of blood thing...surely I missed.

I went back to where I was sitting and started gathering my stuff. And then I thought to myself: "It was kinda weird that he was still crashing through brush like 10 seconds in. Woulda thought he'd have found his nerves by then to more carefully plot his escape. What do I have better to do?"

I grabbed my gun and walked to where I had last seen him, and then instead of heading out into the field where I thought he had run, I turned back deeper into the woods. Still expecting absolutely nothing, about 50 yards in I saw the big, which patch of a buck's belly another 100 yards back in the woods. Probably a total of 150 yards from where I shot him, but straight back in a large opening. Pure, simple, dumb luck that I found him. Could not believe it.

Sorry so long. Was just a really exciting hunt all around.