I had seen this buck while glassing from my stand at anywhere from 750-1000 yards, never getting a really good look at him. I just knew I was looking at a very wide mature deer from a long way off and since he was staying put I knew I had to go get him. In the middle of the day we went to get up high and look down into his area and I'm pretty sure we busted him, had to be the same deer, but again didn't get a great look at him, just a big rack going away. I went to camp and got my shooting bench and took it to this hill side that overlooks the river bottom, set there that evening and saw a few does. I go back a week later and wanting to be sure he was out of the area at 10:00 PM I go into this hood and trim some limbs and cut some brush to open up a lot more acreage. Next morning, right at shooting light I see a dot. Looked through the bino's, it's him. Ranged, 345 yards, go to the gun, he's gone. I came off the gun and looked, looked some more and maybe 3-4 minutes later I see him in the exact same spot. No need to range, dialed to 350 and found him in the scope, boom. I watched him take maybe 3 strides and I lose him. I knew he had to be down since he didn't come out of the tall stuff he went into. The walk to my last site of him was a very long one, this is the first deer in a very long time that didn't drop right there and tracking a deer is not something I want to do. I also lost site of my shot marker on the way as I had to drop down into a creek bottom and it all looked different once I came out. I go to the area of where I was certain he was standing when I shot, ranged back to the shooting table and just moved West until I was at 345 yards on my range finder. He was laying dead not 10 yards away. I have him at the processor and getting a euro. I took a width measurement of 20-3/4", he had really good mass all the way up. I shot him on 11-21, exactly one year to the day that I killed my buck in 2023. In 2022 I shot my buck on 11-22, all from the same area.


I now wish I had taken better field pic's. This one took some work to get to and I was really focused on getting him out of there.

Really nice buck and great story to go with him. Congrats.

Nice deer!

Congrats, sir! Nice shootin'!

Tikka RoughTek, 7mm Rem Mag, Leupold 3-15 x 44, CDS dial, Hornady Precision Hunter 162 Gr ELDX. Slight angle towards me, no exit.

Nice deer. That is some wide open country.

You wouldn’t believe how thick it is on that river bottom. Without some elevation you can’t see 10 yards. Get up above and you have a good look down into it.

Congrats! I admire you guys that can take those longer shots. I like my 100 yard shots in the Hill Country.

That's an old man. Congrats!

Congratulations on a very nice heavy horned buck!