Opening Day Monster

I shot this buck opening morning while walking back to the UTV. He is my best buck to date, 172 4/8 BC.

My rifle set up is a 6.8 SPC SBR with a can and a Steiner 1-4 optic.

Great buck...

Nice buck!! I need to get some blood on my 6.8 sbr!

Awesome Buck my Brother!

That is a GREAT Buck!

that is one fine looking BUCK...

Great looking buck but I am not seeing 170 myself. Might just be the angle but great buck regardless.

That is Gross not net.

awesome buck right there

Congrats nice looking buck!

Awesome buck !!!!

What a brute. Great buck.

Story?

Awesome Buck

WOW. What a stud. Congrats!

Congrats.

In Texas? My goodness. Big congrats!!!!

Heck of a buck

I am working on the story and yes a TX buck from Kaufman County.

2016 Opening Day Buck

This story starts back in August of 2014 when me and my wife purchased a piece of property here in Kaufman County. The property lies in the Trinity River Bottoms and is mainly open ground for cutting hay. After the purchase of the property I threw up some feeders and cameras to see if by chance I had any deer crossing our place. After a few weeks I began to get photos of several bucks and some were very impressive. As time passed by I continued to get more and more photos.

Once I saw that I had some very good deer on our property, I put in a few food plots. One small plot came in really good and the larger plot did not make. As time moved on I stopped getting photos of any deer at all. I hunted hard but never saw a single deer.

Fast forward to 2015. In January I started to get photos of deer again and a few decent bucks. As summer arrived I was getting photos of bucks every day. By the end of August, the deer activity had all but stopped. I was getting very few photos of deer at night but no shooter bucks. Food plots went in the ground in September, but I did not get any rain so none of them came up. Another season of hunting and not seeing a single deer during the season.

2016 arrived and the deer began to show up at the feeders again. Now I have been running feed for three seasons, year round. As the deer started to grow their horns I quickly noticed that I had several shooters that were hitting the feed every day. September arrived and I put 2 acres of food plots in the ground the last weekend of September and the following day we got rain and the food plots began to grow.

Now as you are reading along, you may think this sounds similar to the last two years and you are right. It does sound similar to the previous years with one major exception. I began getting regular photos of does and bucks hitting one of the food plots every few days. I even had a few of the shooters from the summer showing up every 7 days or so in the food plot.

Opening day of archery season came and went. With our property being 10 miles from my house I was able to hunt every weekend. Every time I hunted I would see does and yearlings but no shooters. Even though I never saw a shooter while on stand, I would still occasionally get photos of one of the bucks on my hit list right before day light or just after sunset. Knowing the bucks were still there I was able to maintain my motivation to get up and go hunt every weekend.

The opening day of the Texas general season arrived. I was not going to be able to hunt the entire weekend due to a work trip on Sunday, the weather was bad and I was tired so I decided to leave my bow at home and just take my rifle to the stand. This was a rifle I specifically built to use hunting our property. Since most of our place was open I wanted a light weight rifle that I could carry with me while I was bow hunting in the general season if I so desired. The rifle is a Colt 12” SBR chambered in 6.8 SPC with a Thunderbeast can topped off with a Steiner 1-4x24 M optic. The rifle was zeroed with Hornady 120 grain SST ammunition.

I got in the stand well before daylight, had the camera set up and was ready to see a monster river bottom deer appear in my food plot. Daylight came as well as the rain, but nothing was moving. I had had enough of sitting in the stand and not seeing anything so at about 0920, I decided it was time to pack up and head back to the UTV and call it a morning.

I gathered up all of my gear and got out of my elevated box blind and began the short walk to the UTV. I had my rifle in my right hand and I was texting my wife with a voice app in my left hand. I walked out of the timber onto the mowed right of way and looked up. As I looked up I saw a buck standing about 60 yards away from me staring in my direction. He had dark heavy horns that went way outside of his ears. I stopped and we locked eyes for what seemed like a minute or more but I am sure it was only a few seconds. He turned and started trotting straight away from me flagging his tail. It took me a second or two to remember that I had a rifle and not a bow (for the last 15 years I have only bow hunted whitetail). Once it him me that I was holding a rifle I quickly shouldered the rifle and found the buck in my Steiner optic. As the buck was trotting I placed the dot of the optic right above the base of the buck’s tail and squeezed the trigger. The buck immediately rolled forward and hit the ground. He was down! The monster of a buck was down! I quickly approached the buck and I could not believe what I saw. Everyone has experienced ground shrinkage when approaching a buck but that was not the case with this buck. I had just killed a beast of a buck. As I grabbed the horns I began to count. He was a 12 point that I had guessed would be in the 160’s. I called my wife and told her I was standing over a monster buck. She said she was on her way. My wife and daughter arrived after about 30 minutes and we began taking photos.

After the photo session we loaded the buck in the UTV and headed home. Once the meat was taken care of I got the tape measure out and began to score the buck. As I began to add up the measurements I could not believe what the results were. The buck taped out to be 172 4/8 BC Gross, my largest buck to date. This truly is a buck of a life time and I am very thank full to be blessed with this majestic animal! All of the work and seat time in the stand finally paid off. This was one heck of a way to break my 15 year time line of hunting whitetail only with archery equipment.

Nice

Great buck and great job all around

awesome buck

What a deer and great story!

Congratulations outstanding animal. Thanks for sharing. Got me motivated for the hunt this am

Neat story!

Thanks to all!

congrats

Congrats on an awesome buck!!

Great story and pics.

I agree I think 170 is a bit of a stretch. Not much of a hunt walking back to the truck

You'd shoot that bastard too if you were walking back to the truck and saw him......... hell of a deer dude. Congrats for sure.

nice

Who says that you have to kill a buck sitting in a blind! ever heard of still hunting? I still hunt my way to and from my setups because you will never know what you see. Great job to the OP on a serious buck!

Great buck, thanks for sharing. Good time to have the rifle instead of the bow with you.

I corn the road all way into camp and to skinning she'd so I can hunt when eating lunch.

OP that's a serious deer congrats!!!

I'm not saying I wouldn't have shot this deer but I think 172 is a little optimistic. But I also don't get real hunting confused with dumb luck!

Heck of a buck! Trinity River Bottoms produce some big boys! Congratulations on your Trophy Sir

He's a brute for sure!

Very cool. Congrats

What a deer. Congratulations on a great deer. Your patience finally paid off. Especially nice since it was on your own place.

That buck is a giant, was he facing you when you shot?

Nice buck

Heck of buck, great frame and mass. Congrats

Good gosh, that's a hoss.

What a beast. Way to stick with it and put in the work. Gives some perspective when we know we have deer but see nothing days at a time.

That's a buck of a lifetime if I've ever seen one. I'm glad to see that your persistence finally paid off. Congrats on a fantastic buck

I thought stuff like this ^^^ got deleted?

Great buck, congrats! and to get it off your own place is just one better.

Looks like he has some good beams mass and tines I could see him making the score.

OUTSTANDING! CONGRATS!

Amazing!!!!!!!! Sounds like you hunted hard to get this beast on the ground. Awesome!

Great buck!

I have a few more photos of some good bucks that I am trying to get my daughter on. One is a double drop tine. Maybe this weekend will be her weekend.

Congrats, great buck.

Great deer! Congrats

That's a hoss! Congrats

Great deer! I can see that deer at 170 gross. To the ones that said it wasn't much of a hunt. It's a lot harder to kill a deer walking out side the blind than sitting hidden in it. I think it makes it a better hunt and surely unexpected..

amazing buck, congrats!

That is a fine buck and I bet it felt great to take him on your land. Well done in taking advantage of the opportunity presented to you. Perfect example of how some regions may not have big numbers but they make up for it in quality.

Did the facing away shot break his spine or was it the ol' TX Heart Shot?

that is a great buck. There are always a couple on here that have to bring in the drama. I have always said they are on the wrong forum.

Great buck and thanks for posting.

absolute stud man.......I have seen some monsters around college mound and scurry. Congratulations and don't listen to that idiot. Hunting is all about preparation and luck meeting to your advantage.

Monster of a buck and a great hunt and shot!

As he was running hind end was going up and down and as I pulled trigger, it was on the down swing. Round hit him in the back of the neck and rolled him up!

Great buck for sure, congrats! He must have sensed a hot doe in the area to be out in the open at that time 9:20. A very nice buck.

Awesome buck, congrats!