Last year I let this buck walk in mid-November and we didn’t see him again until mid-January. By that time, he was rutted way down and all busted up. We had a family member that hunted pretty hard for him after my encounter, but never could find him. We were hopeful he’d survive.

Last week I put out a cellular trail cam and yesterday morning I think I found our buck.

Here are a couple pics I took with my phone when I saw him last November. He was a MF 10 with some extras off his G2’s. I aged him at 6.5.







Here is what he looked like in mid-January.



Fast forward to yesterday, and here’s our boy. I’m 99.9% certain. He has a droopy left ear with a notch at the top.







I need a better look at him and he’s shedding velvet so it’s tough to say for sure, but his beams look a little better and he may have a really nice flyer off his right G2.




Here is another pic from 2019 for comparison to the first trail cam pic. The left ear is a dead giveaway. He was a no show this morning, but I’m hoping he will stay in the area for awhile. We have only seen this buck on the hoof twice.

That's pretty sweet

That is him. Nothing is sweeter than seeing a good one show back up that you let walk. Good luck!!

Good thing he got away because it looks like he added some more bone!!!

Good luck this year on him.

definitely mature, 5.5 at minimum

Man he looks like a grandpa in the face, mature for sure

he's got that big roman nose.. best of luck getting him this year.

Good luck!

Dang nice buck
Good luck tagging him

That's awesome! Good luck!

Nap time hope he hangs around

He’s made 3 appearances in the last 5 days, with two during hunting hours. We made the switch to MLDP this year, so we just need him to stick around for another 10 days and make a mistake. Still need better pics, but he definitely has good tine length, good main beams, and a real nice flyer.

Nice buck and surely left a bunch of little ghost genes as well by now.

I thought it might be fun to give an update. The buck in question has made 3 daytime appearances on my trail cam in 10 days, with no real pattern whatsoever. However, I'm betting he moves in the cooler temps tomorrow morning, so I'm taking my 9 year old son with me on a scouting trip early tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll know a lot more about this animal this time tomorrow, and have good pics and video. We have a family member driving in from Lubbock this Friday to try and put him on the ground opening weekend (MLDP).

Looking forward to see the results.
Good luck!

Love it when a plan comes together.

Don't loose him again... ...

Great pics & buck - nice 'dagger' fork. The perfect plan, you knew he'd be there for the photo session. Maybe he'll stay around just long enough!

awesome buck