Slinky Pickle
06-18-2022, 06:30 PM
We have the great fortune to be able to hunt from an elevated blind over an alfalfa field. I had seen this guy on camera once and he had filled my dreams/nightmares since that time. Below is the brief story of how things turned out
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The snow was finally falling and we had about 3 inches of the fresh stuff in the field. Once the ground is white, we have at least 15 - 20 minutes of functional extra shooting light simply because of the light background. We had been watching a number of doe/fawn groups and a couple of small bucks. About 30 minutes after sunset, I could see an animal emerge from the bush. Initially his rack was still obscured by the background so I waited a bit. Then I saw the tell tale rack of the big boy and I knew this was my chance. I had to wait for him to come far enough into the field to provide a safe shot. We watched him for about 10 minutes and during that time he put a younger buck in his place and then had a bit of a chat with a doe. In fact, the doe was wandering our way and the big guy was in tow. At about 200 yards he was in a safe shooting spot and managed to turn broadside. I settled in and squeezed off a shot. He dropped where he stood!
This is the first animal that I've even considered getting a mount done of. Before skinning, I texted Ian at Wild Ridge taxidermy and confirmed a few things with him. I'll be taking the hide with uncaped head to him later today. I think I only messed up the skinning a bit.
We dressed him and I was off to the skinning hoist. Field dressed he was 189 lbs and I assume that I left about 30 lbs of guts in the bush so he was about 220 lbs live. Head and hide off he was 145 lbs.
To put it mildly, I'm quite happy with this buck. I was having a bit of a tough time getting excited about hunting this year and this guy brought me out of my funk.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/9514074837767fe2ed68e1363d33c5c9.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/d24be51adf8c86a43d83e53af6ff24fe.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/013e3b78cb6fa71ad6df9e9f500d9df8.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpg
-----------------.
The snow was finally falling and we had about 3 inches of the fresh stuff in the field. Once the ground is white, we have at least 15 - 20 minutes of functional extra shooting light simply because of the light background. We had been watching a number of doe/fawn groups and a couple of small bucks. About 30 minutes after sunset, I could see an animal emerge from the bush. Initially his rack was still obscured by the background so I waited a bit. Then I saw the tell tale rack of the big boy and I knew this was my chance. I had to wait for him to come far enough into the field to provide a safe shot. We watched him for about 10 minutes and during that time he put a younger buck in his place and then had a bit of a chat with a doe. In fact, the doe was wandering our way and the big guy was in tow. At about 200 yards he was in a safe shooting spot and managed to turn broadside. I settled in and squeezed off a shot. He dropped where he stood!
This is the first animal that I've even considered getting a mount done of. Before skinning, I texted Ian at Wild Ridge taxidermy and confirmed a few things with him. I'll be taking the hide with uncaped head to him later today. I think I only messed up the skinning a bit.
We dressed him and I was off to the skinning hoist. Field dressed he was 189 lbs and I assume that I left about 30 lbs of guts in the bush so he was about 220 lbs live. Head and hide off he was 145 lbs.
To put it mildly, I'm quite happy with this buck. I was having a bit of a tough time getting excited about hunting this year and this guy brought me out of my funk.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/9514074837767fe2ed68e1363d33c5c9.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/d24be51adf8c86a43d83e53af6ff24fe.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/013e3b78cb6fa71ad6df9e9f500d9df8.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211119/36029eba5e19aebe90ac61d9d6a9e20a.jpg