very nice! congrats!!!

"Puuurdy"!!

Amazing deer

Can't ask for a better opening morning than that. Congrats

Congrats.

Congrats on a mighty fine buck

Congrats

Very nice!! Congrats

Nice buck!!! Congrats!!!

This is our first year in this lease and it had not been hunted in the past. I had been looking for a lease that had two spots for me and my dad for years. My other lease is actually only 11 miles south of this one but never had an opening. My dad taught me to hunt as a kid but we haven't hunted together in almost 14 years. Me and him spent the summer working and sweating out butts off trying to get this place ready. When we got our cameras running we were a little disappointed at the pictures but knew the place had potential since it hadn't been hunted in the past. Opening morning we saw a few does at sun up and then it was pretty idle. About 8:30 my dad called me and said he had caught a glimpse of what looked like a nice buck headed my way (his stand is about 800 yards from me over a ridge). I started watching the ridge and sae a nice heavy 8 pushing some does over the ridge. I was about to lower my binoculars when I saw nothing but tines come over the ridge. This big boy was on the 8 points tail and was bowed up ready to fight. I immediately grabbed my rifle and tried to find a shot. One of the does was hot and he turned his attention to her and the chase was on! I literally had my rifle out every window in my stand and at one point had the door open and was hanging out the door with one foot on the ladder. I couldn't get a shot to save my life. Finally they came around my left side and I grunted to stop them. She stopped he didn't. He hauled tail around a group of cedars and stopped about 150 yards away in some chest high grass. I set crosshairs on where his chest should be and let one go. My phone was ringing and I answer to my dad saying "you didn't shoot the first one did you?" He didn't know if I had seen the bigger buck. I got down and went to where he was at when I shot him and NO BLOOD! None anywhere. I'm a pretty good shot but my blood pressure was so high and buck fever had been kicking my tail for the last 15 minutes before the shot. At that point I was second guessing myself. I started my trailing in the direction he went. Still no blood. I had walked down every trail he could have gone down as far as the trail would go without any sign of a hit. Over an hour has passed at this point. I was coming up one of the trails and texting my dad and Buddy to let them know I had missed the biggest buck I had ever seen and I looked to my left and saw two tines sticking out of the grass!! She shot was perfect but the bullet didn't exit I was beside my self with joy. This is the biggest buck I've ever taken and to have my dad there with me to help me recover it made it that much better!

Very nice

wow!

Great buck and a memorable hunt.

Awesome story! What caliber gun and what bullets were you shooting? I'm just curious. Did you shoot him in the front shoulder? He's a stud for sure!

I shoot a 30-06 and I'm shooting 168gr Nosler ballistic hunting bullets with 49.5 grains of varget pushing it. They normally make a hole you could put your arm through but not this time.

very nice deer and great story