10 pointer down!

Well, I'm an old hunter but a relative deer newbie, having hunted four days in 1988, four and a half in 2012, five last year, and four this year before today. 25 minutes into a still hunt this morning I bagged a 10 point buck. The pics I took on site were with a disposable 35mm (I couldn't find my camera before the season and wasn't going to ask the wife to borrow hers) so I don't have pics to show you. My wife took some good driveway and hanging in garage pics when I got home and when she sends them to me I'll post them, along with the story. I will just say for now that I am tougher than I thought because the drag out was a ! I think I'm 53 going on 35 lol. Anyway, I just wanted to share my happiness and I'll put some pics up later. Cheers!

EDIT: Upon re-evaluating the length and quality of all the tines - call this one an 8 POINTER.

Congrats!

Congratulations Smallgamer...

Congrats on the success.... Looking forward to the story and pics

Congrats for sure !! Sounds like a wall hanger !

Well, I don't think anyone would call it a "trophy" deer, but it sure is to me. I think I will do a European mount. Four of it's tines are broken, so I guess this guy was a scrapper. The Reader's Digest version of the story is as follows: I visited a spot this morning that I haven't deer hunted before but know from squirrel hunts. The cover is very thick and tough going due to deadfalls, a small water course, and vines. Once I got into it I felt very sure I would see deer. It is a ravine bottom, with tree, sapling, and deadfall studded sides. About 25 minutes into it, I saw a doe angling down the east (my left) hillside and I drew a bead on her with my Mossy 500. She got down to the base of the hill, and though I could see the crown of her head and ears, her body was obscured by cover. While mentally berating myself for being too slow to take the shot, Mr. Buck appeared, following the does path down the hillside. I raised my gun and fired, and missed! He actually turned to look at me while I chambered another round. I fired again and bang flop and tumble down the hill. He tumbled down to where the doe was and she bolted. After carefully cleaning the buck (my first time, I didn't want to screw up the deer or cut myself, so I took my time on this really big rabbit, which I told myself all this was after all). Then I had to get this guy back to my PT Cruiser (which stand for Pretty Tough, by the way). I had brought an old plastic toboggan, and I loaded the deer onto it. The terrain back to the car via the route I walked in was impassable with my cargo, so I headed up the side of the ravine. I wrapped the tow rope around my waist and did the "pull for five feet, rest for a few minutes" thing. I am far from a sedentary person but I am 53 and carry a few extra pounds. Without going into the gritty details, I will tell you that I did manage to drag him up about the 50m of rugged hillside, and then along the 200-300m of ridge back to the car, and it took two hours.Then it was spread the tarp in the car and muscle the deer/sled combo into the back. Anyway, he is home and hanging in the garage and I have a story, lol. BTW, the deer is legally tagged, my hand covers it in the driveway pic but you can see it in the garage pic.

Good deal Smallgamer, glad it came together for you.

Edit.....just saw the pics, and the smile says it all. Again Congrats.

WTG you did very good ,,,,nice buck

Great story and a real nice buck, wholly neck!

Congrats on the buck, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comments guys!

Congrats on the buck!!

Great job on a fine deer .

Hey mr meat, good to hear from you! I hope that Mossy 20 gauge Bantam I sold you is working out well for the Mrs. !

Very well done!

Thanks Jack! Hey, how is that Mossberg three barrel combo working for you? This is sort of an "I sold a Mossberg" moment!

Nice bucky. Congratulations! Its always more rewarding doing the whole job solo.

Thanks, oaknut. The truth is, when I was 2/3 the way up the hill and the steepest section was still facing me, I decided calling for help was the wiser thing to do. I called my brother on my cell, knowing he would drop whatever he was doing to help me out, but there was no answer. Then I thought about calling one of my solid friends, but really didn't want to bother them. So I just leaned into it and got it done. And I'm glad I did do it without help. Reflecting on it with a beer in my hand and the deer hanging in front of me in the garage, I said to my wife what you said in your post. Doing it all alone makes it just a little bit sweeter. If I never do it all alone ever again, at least I did it once.

Nice buck and nice work!

Congrats

That's awesome congrats. A nice one! Cheers

BEAUTY BUCK. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Enjoy your success and the fine rewards of your hard work. Congrats!!!

Thanks again everyone.

That's a great buck! congrats!

Thanks for sharing your story and the pics. Something like this is worth the pain of pulling it out of the bush. Wouldn't you agree?

Congrats - nice deer

right on, congratulations!

Great feel good story and pics from your trophy. Congratulations!

I know the feeling and sweat of hauling out a big one as last Wednesday my buddy shot a massive 11 pointer in the bush and we both struggled to haul him out 100 yards to the ATV trailer. Good thing for machinery as we were about 2 kilometers to camp. We nick named him the "heart attack deer" as both of us are north of 55 and dead beat after the struggle in rugged terrain. Excellent work on pulling that one out by yourself!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by captain cotton

Thanks for sharing your story and the pics. Something like this is worth the pain of pulling it out of the bush. Wouldn't you agree?

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Yessir.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by impact

Great feel good story and pics from your trophy. Congratulations!

I know the feeling and sweat of hauling out a big one as last Wednesday my buddy shot a massive 11 pointer in the bush and we both struggled to haul him out 100 yards to the ATV trailer. Good thing for machinery as we were about 2 kilometers to camp. We nick named him the "heart attack deer" as both of us are north of 55 and dead beat after the struggle in rugged terrain. Excellent work on pulling that one out by yourself!

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Great job, and thank you.

Well, I would call it a trophy deer but they all are to me in their own way. Even more so when you consider that you tried a new spot and got the job done on your own. Well done!