some of you may remember a thread I had a few years back about a big sika bull I was hunting. In sept. 2015 I was playing cat and mouse with a giant sika bull and it culminated with me shooting at him at 25 yards but having the arrow go thru the side of the blind and turning before it hit him sideways. After that the landowner shot at him with a rifle and missed, another guy shot at him with a bow and missed and he was not seen but once the following year

Earlier in august I was looking for a aoudad when I saw him again with a few does. I had him well within rifle range but him still being in velvet and a summer coat made me pass on him as he would not make a prime mount.

Talked with the landowner and he gave me the green light to set up again to bowhunt him. Last week when and set up my pop ups and got feeders in order. On Monday my wife suprised me with a new Mathews Halon 32 that I scrambled to get set up and shooting (another ordeal al in itself) and last night finally got it dialed in.

Got up at 4:45 am and made the drive to the ranch, got set up and at 7:00 am three sika doe appeared. About 10 min later here comes the old monarch again in exactly the same place he was 2 years ago

I get composed, wait for him to get in position, draw back and settle the pin on his rib cage and let it fly. Arrow sails low towards his heart, he jumps and runs off.....no crash. I'm thinking he got it in the heart. Wait a few min and I start hearing him roar. Get out and find no blood. Look for the arrow and I see it laying on the ground clean as can be.

Ranged it prior at 27 yards.....I used my 20 yard pin.

As I was leaving I saw him walking off toward the canyon.


I swear this deer is immortal or has some mystical power in him. Hopefully he will come back tonite or in the morning

Maybe you will find him after he passes on of old age.

You'll get him. Maybe with a rifle, but you'll get him.

Hang in there! You will get him.

I have done that exact same thing. Had a gorgeous 10 point at 35 yards - problem is I shot him for 30 (he had run a little when a doe busted me drawing so didn't have a chance to range him).

Thought I had missed him clean as he chased a doe around with no apparent ill effects for 45 minutes. Took him with my rifle a week later. There was a 1" flesh wound in his brisket just below the heart.

I hope I get another chance at him with a bow.

He is high gold medal for low fence he would be a real trophy but this is a personal vendetta at this point!

We had a big ole boar that did the same thing to us for a few years, he was a beast that dodged us several times, we named him Kevlar. You would think it would be impossible to miss such a huge animal.
My daughter went to hunt him for the first time and shot him with in a few minutes of sitting in the blind. Crazy how things work.
Good luck.

I hear ya. Hope he messes up.

Good luck. You can do it.

Good luck, can't wait to see the pic when you get him!

He is a ghost, a figment of your imagination. When you awaken, you will find that someone hacked your THF account and wrote the story as you slept. Then it will get better.

lol I've literally had dreams about him

Used my 30,yard pin this evening killed two hogs....hopefully that stag will appear in the morning.

let the property sit a bit....gonna be out there Friday morning or Saturday Morning depending on schedule.


man I wish it would turn off cooler its brutal outside here in the Hill Country

good luck

Good luck, hope you get him!!!

Gonna go give it a shot in the am

Will do love updates

Good luck.....

Good luck hope you get him..........

It's 77 degrees here, over cast with intermittent drizzle

Bumped a bunch of sika around 6:15 that were next to my pop-up

Feeder went off at 7:05 and no deer seen yet

One big WT spike came in.

Saw something he didn't like (was not me) and he crept back off

Lol quit messing with that phone. That big boy is going to slip in on you.

Haha doubtful.

With all the stuff on the ground they are anything but quiet

Slow morning. Heard several sika bugleing/whistling one very close to my pop up but no action.

Set up a feeder down low to try and catch him/another one in the evenings

I now have 3 bow locations and 1 rifle blind that I won't hunt and honestly not a lot of sika are spotted there

Hate playing musica chairs but it's good to have different set up for wind changes and to give some sets a cooling off period

Tomorrow morning I will hunt a different area


Interesting to note, one other feeder still had all the corn under it

Wonder if the deer have switched to acorns/walnuts that are dropping?

Did read on a previous thread that acorns are already starting to drop.. Dont have many oaks at all on my place so dont worry about it too much, but seems quite a few folks are noticing how early they are dropping.

My boys wanted to hunt Saturday morning so we went to another property I hunt that is more set up for rifle hunting.

My oldest had a huge axis come in only to find out he had broken off his right beam 12" above the base so he passed on him

My youngest got his first hog ever followed by his second

He came back

Of course he did. He's playing with you. Good luck, that's a real trophy size one.

This is why I have a love/hate relationship with trail cameras.

I did not put it up on my own accord the landowner insisted it.

For numbers and management work I like them but for hunting I abhor their use

Gonna go after him tomorrow

Good luck, hope you get him

torrential downpours have kept me home this morning.

gonna try Friday morning and all weekend

Good luck he is a beauty for sure!

Beautiful bull. Why don't you shoot him??

Hard work and consistency will eventually pay off.

Hope you finally get him.

The saga has ended.

Story and pics to follow

Congrats! Can't wait to see the pictures and get the whole story

X2...awesome bull!

can someone turn these the right way?

Congrats!!

Great bull!!! Congrats

So here is how it played out:

Woke up at 4:00 am to get a jump on things. Got everything loaded up and head out to the ranch.

Park truck, make the 15 min walk towards the blind, decide to take a slightly different route to avoid bumping deer like I had been doing. Get into the blind only to discover that my chair is full of water, no big deal I dump my backpack and sit on it.

Take a hour and a half nap then as it starts to get light feeder goes off, and shortly their after 2 sika does appear. I am starting to hear some bulls roar and these two does keep looking behind them, after a few min another doe appears.

They sit and mill around for s bit, they always kept checking their 6 and I knew it would only be a matter of time before he showed up

At around 7:30, as the sun starts to peek over the hills, they all three turn around and I look behind the feeder and I see antlers start to crest the hill. It was like something out of a movie scene.

He comes in and starts sniffing the air...I'm worried that he may wind me because that stand is ok on a north wind but not when it's swirling. He keeps his nose in the air and starts stomping his feet...I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before he busts. Then all of a sudden he drops his head and starts to feed, then snaps back to attention.

At this point he is about 27-28 yards away, I draw back , go thru my mental checklist and settle the pins on him. I almost jerked the shot but I regrouped and as the pins settled behind his shoulder I let it fly and watched as the arrow sailed into his side. At the shot I heard it hit, seemed like a little high, he jumped like he was rifle shot, spun around and high tailed it. I knew it was a good hit but was nervous about how high it was, fearing I may have got him in the pocket, but I hear him crash after a few seconds

I give him a few min, find my blood soaked arrow (which was laying right next to where I shot him) follow the path down the hill and find him laying on a bare spot right at the treeline

The lord truly blessed me, it sounds weird but I had a feeling I would get him today, my aunt passed away in her sleep last nite very unexpectedly. She was always very supportive of my hunting and I would give her 2-3 deer a year

She would have loved to have seen this deer and I hope she was looking down on me this morning.

That is fantastic brother! Congratulations!! Beautiful, beautiful animal.

So sorry about your aunt. Prayers for your family.

Congrats

Glad you were able to seal the deal.
My condolences to you sir.

I'm sure she was. Congrats on the awesome bull.

Congrats!

Great story with a great ending. She was looking down for sure!

Great hunt and finally got him Congrats!!!

Sorry to read about the Aunt passing, she knows what you got today

Sorry about your aunt. Congrats on your deer

Beautiful bull, congratulations. Very sorry about your aunt, God's Comfort to you and yours.

Persistence paid off, congrats on a great bull and condolences for your family.

So he went gold both SCI and Record of Exotic

Officially he scored 119" SCI and 112" unofficially R.O.E

SCI quit having separate categories for the different subspecies in North America so he competed with the much larger dybowski and manchurian sika for scoring.

In the European category where they are considered all Japanese sika he smashed the min. Bow or rifle.

He beat the R.O.E min. By 20"


Truly a remarkable animal

Right on! So sorry to hear about your aunt, but I know she is proud!

Entered him officially last nite, he is at no. 154 all time and No. 21 taken with a bow. Because they quite separating the 3 species in North America he competes against the much larger dybowski and manchurian ( in whitetail terms it's like a coues deer not having its own category). They also don't have a separate category for free range and estate/high fence

For a Japanese sika he may be the largest free range bull ever taken with a bow...no way of knowing

Great Job!