Pond Stand Drop Tine Buck

I found this guy on cam in late October. He was not as mature as I would like, but with a nice long drop I decided to make a play for him. Although we are an MLD property, our internal rules do not allow us to kill our trophy buck until the opening of general season. I was able to narrow down his entry point onto our property, and went to the ranch on October 30 to scout and make every effort to keep him coming back. Day one (Friday 10/30), I spread 200 lbs. or protein and 200 lbs. of corn around the general area in which I'd been seeing him on cam. Every other day I went back and dropped another 100 lbs of each, working my way progressively closer to ideal sight lines from my blind. I continued this pattern through Saturday 11/07.

The buck showed on Sunday 11/02 at 5:55pm, 10 minutes after official sunset, and was gone within 10 minutes. He showed again the next morning at 730am, and was again gone after within 10-15 minutes. I decided to hunt elsewhere until Thursday 11/05, at which point I would commit every sit in that location until (1) I killed the deer, or (2) was required to to depart the ranch on 11/11 to attend to work-related responsibilities. After Monday 11/03, the buck never showed up on my game cam, nor did I see him in person on Thursday 11/05 or Friday 11/06. Saturday 11/07 arrived, and I knew this day was going to be my best chance to kill this buck, in spite of the warming trend which had plagued us for the last several days. . I sat until 11am with underwhelming activity, and after a brief break for lunch and the head, I was back in the set by 1230pm. From 1230pm to 530pm, I saw the whopping total of 3 deer, which was not surprising considering we had winds blowing 15-20mph. Sunset on 11/07 was at 545pm. At 530pm, things started to pick up, with some does and younger bucks popping up and coming to feed. At 540pm, he finally walked in to some of the "special" my corn (corn, garbanzo beans, dried, diced apricots). My nerves were more of a problem than I anticipated, but I was able to rapidly gain control reminding myself that daylight was fading fast, and could potentially hinder recovery efforts if tracking became necessary. Also, true to form, he did not seem intent on staying around long, and as he worked his way from my left to right, he finally offered up an ideal shot window, slightly quartering away, and at 90 yards I put one in him with my 7 mag. I knew immediately it was solid hit, but he ate it, and as his body lowered, and he put every effort into hauling arse out of there. Within 10 yards of his explosion of power, he crashed into a tree which provided a sort of canopy over a cactus patch with a trail running through it. It was by far the loudest crash from a wounded deer I had ever heard, and although I couldn't see him at this point, I knew I had little time to try to find blood before losing light completely. After quietly packing up and getting out of the blind, I walked over to where I saw the crash and found him DRT. Unfortunately when he crashed into the tree, he broke off the drop tine, however I was able to go back the following morning and dig through the cactus patch and find it.

He had 3 other broken tines (besides the drop), and still scored 146 gross. He probably could have used another year or two to mature fully, but I don't believe any one of our group, nor the neighboring hunters, would have passed on such a unique buck. So, like uncle Ted says, he doesn't have to worry about any more birthdays now.

Awesome buck, and great write up. Congrats!!

Great story and pics. Glad you found that drop, it will be an easy fix for the taxi......Congrats on a great buck!

Good looking buck, glad you were able to find the broken tine
Congrats

Awesome job!

Great story! You earned him. He has a ton of character. Congratulations!

really nice

Very nice, congrats and glad you found the drop tine.

Very nice!

Very nice unique rack especially with that long drop tine!! Congratulations!

yep

Great story and buck!!! Thanks for posting and congrats!!

Neat buck, very unique. Just out of curiosity, whats the reasoning behind yalls rule on not taking Trophies earlier?

Congrats!

Likely to give them another chance to breed.

He sure does have come character for sure, congratulations.

From what I have been told, the rule was put in place because the hunters in our MLD were not killing their does and culls, and thus October trophy-killing was eliminated with the expectation that the month be used to take the allotted numbers. IMO this makes zero sense. 9 hunters on 2000 acres, thus with 2 doe and a cull buck to kill in October, that's 27 gunshots in 30 days. Sounds like a great way to ensure any and all trophy bucks are fully aware that our spot is NOT the place to be. Thankfully, our hunters do not subscribe en masse to the theory. As of today 11/18/2020, the buck pictured has been the only deer killed off our lease this season.

Wow

Great buck

Congrats!!

cool buck man good job

😊

Awesome buck!