The next morning was 24 degrees outside. I'd hit snooze a few times and wasn't going to go,but figured the season was almost over,and I'd miss it when it was gone,so I got my butt up and went out. The 500 yard walk in ,which was flooded and now iced over,was a nightmare to navigate. Took me longer and made a ton of noise getting in. Right at 1st light,I spotted a giant boar heading my direction, but when I went to stand up,my climber made a slight noise and he bolted.i fired 2 crack shots at him,and may have hit him with the 1st,but a pine branch came crashing down in front of me where I drilled it with the 2nd. I reloaded 2 more shells,and tried my best to stay alert. After a couple hours,my wife text me this long message about having a killer breakfast ready for me when I got down to come in. I told her I'd sit another hour if I could stand it. 30 min later,I couldn't stop shaking. It was bitter cold,and I wasn't seeing much action. I told her I'd be getting down in 5 minutes. I look up a couple minutes later and see this 10 point walking straight down a firelane my direction. If he crosses the lane and jumps the fence, he's off our property. I knew I had to make a quick shot. I fired and he didn't react like a hit but rather confused as he ran about 50 yards further onto our property in the sage . I fired again and felt I'd hit him with that but he still kept running,actually back toward the firelane he'd Come in on,so I fired my last shell as he was struggling to get down it. As he exited my view,I could see his opposite shoulder was doing the windmill,and instantly thought I screwed up and shot really low. I quietly looked for any blood but couldn't find it as the firelane had about 8" of water and ice in it hiding whatever blood there may be. Since I was also out of ammo,I backed out and called the dog man. When he got there,I took him to the crime scene and let the pups do their thing . Within 10 min,the 1 dog that primarily is the 'nose' of the 2 located the deer and alerted with a bark that signified a bay situation. The other dog took off her direction, as he was primarily the muscle of the 2. When we got to buck,he was still alive but hurt bad,as I had put 2 308 rounds in him. One in the shoulder that looked like it exploded upon impact,and another in the rear ham; guessing that was a running shot I'd hit him with. All it took after that was a knife jab to the lungs/heart,and it was game over. He had 4.5" bases and both beams were 20.5". Going to be tough to top this weekend and feel extremely blessed the family was able to share in the moment.


Before of the 10