And now for the rest of the story....

Full Disclaimer: I shot this deer on a high fence preserve in Ohio. Very natural setting that features a mix of both Pasture and Pen born deer. If you take offense to that then don't read any further, feel the need to comment, etc. as quite frankly I don't care about your opinion.

So now its time for me to tell the rest of the tale......


This story began in spring of 2020...Covid had just hit and the world was turned upside down. We were a banquet of the local chapter of SCI and this hunt was on the auction block. Wife really showed interest in it, but due to several of my hunts being in limbo and the uncertainty of the world at the time, we decided to pass. This spring we returned to the banquet and again, we saw this item up for bid. My wife is more a deer hunter than anything else and really wanted to go, I told her if this was something she wanted she had my full support. Well after a few back and forths between her and a competitor she emerged the victor and the owner of the property came over to congratulate her and give us a few details about the hunt.

The property was originally a members-only fishing club founded in 1977. In 2008 the Daniels family purchased the property and infused their vision into an already established operation, combining a world class fishery with a one of a kind midwestern whitetail hunting experience. The club hosts around 280 year round members to fish the many trout streams, ponds and lakes that are found throughout the farm. During the Fall deer season, the club shuts down to members from Monday-Wed each week so they can host whitetail hunts. Excited to hunt somewhere new, we were interested in seeing the bright fall colors and hunting deer that have shed their summer coat and have started to bulk up for winter. We chose this past week as according to the authorities on fall color change, this was supposed to be the peak time ( we ended up missing it by about a week )

We counted down the days and began to prep for the trip, we got our gear together and last minute I decided to drive up with my wife flying up a few days later. I make it to Columbus, pick her up and settle in.

First morning of the hunt we go off to our respective blinds. I had chose to bow hunt and we went to a clear cut strip cut down in the woods situated on top of a saddle where they have a beet and turnip food plot. They don't use corn feeders up there ( they have a free choice protein feeder in some locations filled up with a mix of corn, pellets and sweet feed but these don't see alot of activity until the winters get hard ) and we are fighting a full moon and a heavy acorn crop, not to mention the turnip & beet field and numerous alfalfa fields located on the property. Morning starts off slow with a few deer moving, a few does and fawns and one young buck right at first light. Because i had chose to bow hunt, we had spread a little corn via 5 gallon bucket to attempt to get them to stop in a location where a shot was possible. Around 8:30 a young buck moves in and a clean 10 in the 160's range comes in and starts to nibble on the pile. He never gives me a clean shot and soon exits the field.


To be continued......

And...

I think his wife must've summoned him.

He seems to have more patience when writing a recap than when he actually hunted...maybe the wife is teaching him patience when hunting....

So we went back to the lodge, grab a few fishing rods and hit the trout streams. Trout were a bit finicky but we were able to bring several nice ones to hand.

Fished from about noon to 3:00 when we headed back up to get ready for the evening hunt

LET'S GO BRANDON!!

Come on man...I will be 66 before you get this story told to the end....

We go back to the lodge, get our stuff and make our way back to the stand. My wife went to a new location and we returned to the previous clear cut/turnip plot. I have to explain the situation as we are hunting in an elevated box blind over a food plot that is 120 yards by 50 yards. With my compound and stand location I can cover maybe a 1/4 of the field. So not the ultimate bow hunting set up but being in the thick woods I figured I had at least a 25% chance of getting one in range. Seriously contemplating shooting the 10 from the morning hunt if the opportunity presented itself, I was excited as the deer had been moving much better in the evening.

We settle in around 4:30 and around 5:00 a small buck comes in from our left and starts eating at the corn pile. About 5 min goes by and my guide Brennan taps me on the leg and says there is a big buck coming in. The smaller buck on the corn pile lifts his head, looks to his left and starts running away. I hear hooves beating and at about 4 yards this massive buck comes running by the blind at a gallop running towards the other buck....he chases his clear out of the patch and into the woods on the far side.

The trout looks big in your hands yet small in hers.

So I text my wife to inquire about her hunt and tell her about the Giant deer. She has wanted a drop tine deer all along and this one had about a 5” drop coming of his left beam. She isn’t seeing very much at her location. About 10 min later the younger buck appears at the back of the food plot. He keeps looking behind him and sure enough, the horse with horns is right behind him.

I text my wife and tell her that big buck showed back up and she says to take him if I had an opportunity and don’t wait on her account. At this point he is 100 yards away and is just kind of causally strolling down the side of the field when he turns and starts coming right towards the blind ...

Brennan whispers he is coming in. After I took that last pic I stopped looking at him, get my bow ready and get my release on the D-loop. I look up and he is broadside at 24 yards eating in the turnip patch. I am purposely not looking at his antlers and only focusing on his shoulder area. I remember thinking for whatever reason 24 yards was a little far out ( it’s not at all ) and wanting him to be right around 20. As if on cue, he takes a few stops foreword , turns and faces the other way. I still don’t have my hopes up, as I’m concerned he will get spooked on the draw. I have a partially torn rotator cuff and although I can draw the bow, sometimes it isn’t as smooth as it could be and my shoulders pop horribly. He takes a few stops forward and he is more or less broadside...I draw back and he never lifts his head. He continues feeding, I wait until he is perfectly in position, settle the pin behind his shoulder and let it rip. I watch the fletching disappear into brown hide, he jump and kick and blood start pouring out of the entrance hole. He takes off at full tilt out of the field, thru the woods and runs right into a small tree about 8” in diameter and snaps it off at the base. He kicks a time or two and he is done.

Brennan turns and say man that was awesome, I got it all on video. I text the wife and let her know the buck was down, and we get out of the blind to go out hands on him

Brennan whispers he is coming in. After I took that last pic I stopped looking at him, get my bow ready and get my release on the D-loop. I look up and he is broadside at 24 yards eating in the turnip patch. I am purposely not looking at his antlers and only focusing on his shoulder area. I remember thinking for whatever reason 24 yards was a little far out ( it’s not at all ) and wanting him to be right around 20. As if on cue, he takes a few stops foreword , turns and faces the other way. I still don’t have my hopes up, as I’m concerned he will get spooked on the draw. I have a partially torn rotator cuff and although I can draw the bow, sometimes it isn’t as smooth as it could be and my shoulders pop horribly. He takes a few stops forward and he is more or less broadside...I draw back and he never lifts his head. He continues feeding, I wait until he is perfectly in position, settle the pin behind his shoulder and let it rip. I watch the fletching disappear into brown hide, he jump and kick and blood start pouring out of the entrance hole. He takes off at full tilt out of the field, thru the woods and runs right into a small tree about 8” in diameter and snaps it off at the base. He kicks a time or two and he is done.

Brennan turns and say man that was awesome, I got it all on video. I text the wife and let her know the buck was down, and we get out of the blind to go out hands on him

I will tell you that I had a bit or remorse over shooting this deer as it was 100% what my wife was looking for. It was early season, and odds were in our favor he would have come back. While this is by far the largest buck I’ve ever taken or probably ever seen, I still am a bit bummed knowing i shot this deer when I knew it was her dream buck.






Stay tuned tomorrow because there is ALOT more to the story....

I feel sorry for your wife, you stole her deer.
NOT

Nice buck and good write up! Don’t feel bad about killing him. You can buy her a better one without leaving the great state of Texas. It would have been tough for me to leave the trout stream to go deer hunting.

Congrats on a great buck and great recap also!
And now the rest of the story Part II...

Theyre gonna bid the price up next year cause everybody knows youve got to take her back, and again and again till she gets one like that. Congrats, I hope your guilt goes away, gonna ruin your memory.

Ok so here we are, got a dream buck on the ground and we call for backup and are about to load it up. Text the wife to get a report on what she is seeing and she has a few does/fawns and a 6 pointer. We load up the deer and make our way back to camp, get it in the shed and turn the cooler on.




I get a text shortly after that just reads “ I shot a F***ing monster” Super relieved that she got a deer, I confirm she got it and said her 7mm-08 laid him out flat.

Thinking she shot a nice buck, I Text her that we are on our way, we go to mix a drink for the successful combo and we head that way. We pull up to the blind, grab them and make our way to her deer when the headlights catch it....she killed a literal monster. I shot a big deer, she shot a small moose.

Her and her guide recounted the story; shortly after I shot my buck she showed him a picture of it and said “ this, this is what I’m looking for, god is just gonna have to drop it out of the sky”. Minutes later they hear a hellacious buck fight up on the ridge above them and see two deer going for broke trying to kill each other. At some point they locked up and as they struggled to unlock they started to slide down the hill and ended up tumbling end over end all the way down..landing only 60 yards from the blind...during the fall they separated and both got to their feet but very dazed and confused. She told me she didn’t even look at the deer at any length, she just got her rifle up and took the shot. She jumped right over cloud 9 and said it was the best hunt of her entire life.

The Beauty and the Beast

Congrats to your wife on a great buck too

Great recap and a couple great bucks. Your buck is one any of us would have gladly shot but hers is a Monster. She wanted a drop tine buck and she got one with 4.

Congrats to you both

Those are a couple of great bucks and a large taxidermy bill too! Congrats!

Very nice, congrats to both of you!

Well, she ended up with more than one drop. Her photo at the lake is quite stunning.

Great bucks for both of you. Just where to start scoring your wife's buck, is beyond me.
Well done.

Wow! What an awesome trip. Be hard to top that one.

Holy cow!!!!!!

Good Lord and you get on me for being a highroller , then get on me for posting a tease thread. Ultimate

Man , you set me up to post something really mean but I wont. Nice deer

I’m guessing you have a serious combination of drunkenness and butthurt.

Heck of a trip. Congrats

I’m not even sure what you’re wife killed. That thing has more points on its brows than any deer I’ve ever killed has total.

Both of y’all made out like bandits and definitely got your money’s worth in awesome animals and memories.

Nice write up, I like those.

Congrats to both of y’all on great deer!

Buzz just wants to be invited over.

The fact that your wife WANTS to go hunting with you is freakin' awesome. Lucky man.

I did not see that coming... That is awesome

Great story and hunt for you both as well as fantastic pictures.
It must be great having a wife share the passion for hunting. Mine loves to sit and watch but doesn't care at all about killing a deer...even a big one. lol



And damn STXRM is as impatient as a 5 year old at Christmas isn't he!

Pretty patient when he spends $, that's for certain.

great write up and a couple of awesome bucks!

Absolute monsters. Great write up, thank you for sharing.

Awesome all around!!

Thank you for being up front, but not for me.

Awesome deer and memories made!!! Congratulations to you both!

What a great hunt! Two deer of a lifetime in one evening!


and Superduty with the completely unnecessary comment. Reading comprehension challenged, obviously.

When you put yourself in an open form, deal with it!

Damn.....I was just about to invite you to go with us on the return trip....


I don’t know how I’ll go on with my life now, knowing it was not for you

Great write up, and awesome bucks!!!

Spelling challenged, too.

I'll be happy to take his place!

Congrats to you both! Outstanding!

There always has to be that guy.....I'm surprised it took almost 3 pages for him to emerge.

What I don't understand, is what did that comment accomplish? I made no false pretenses about where I was or what circumstances the deer were taken under. Did he sit back, smug in his chair, with the ultimate satisfaction of knowing that everyone on the THF now understands that " its not for him"



My question is.....what is for him? I've been a member of the forum for a long, long time and can't remember many, if any, hunting related posts he has made? Maybe golf and unsolicited statements are more his game

Congrats to both of you. That’s awesome.

Don't shave your beard in November. that'll show him.

I’ll shave it off for November.

Wife might divorce me but oh well