Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum My best to date

Y’all, this was a roller coaster of emotions from the shot to the recovery. Everywhere from almost sick to such an adrenaline rush of happiness and excitement. I was hunting with my buddy at his Barbour county lease, and I saw a buck pass through a planted shooting lane, didn’t even have time to get my gun out the window. He texted me if I just saw the buck come through because his cam pinged, and I said yeah but he was moving too quick. Thank God that deer wasn’t a good one cause I didn’t have time to shoot. We texted back and forth a couple times, then I saw movement at the bottom of the shooting lane. I got my gun up and saw it was no doubt a mature buck, but he was walking straight towards me. I wait for what feels like three forevers and he finally turns to go into a pine thicket. He was quartered hard to me at this point, so that was my only opportunity to let the bullet fly. I shot and looked up, no deer in sight because he was two steps away from being out of sight already. I give it a few minutes and look for sign of a hit, flashlight dies shortly after I start looking, and tried with cell phone after that, which was a joke. I went to pick my buddy up and we went to search again…no sign of a hit. I then start in the pine thicket to a couple heavy trails and about 5 yards in, I here him make a loud kind of “crying” grunt…I knew it was time to back the heck out! We went back to camp, and I’m just pacing…cant sit still…about to vomit…mind racing…I’m just thinking the worst of the worst scenarios. So we eat and BS for about 3 hours and go back in to look with a couple more guys that were hunting the afternoon. I tell Jim about where I was when I heard the grunt, and we start walking very slowly down a couple trails…me and Mark on one to the left, Jim to the right of us about 10 yards. Then things get VERY interesting. I hear Jim say to hold on a minute guys…Mark keeps walking cause he’s about deaf. I grab him and say hold on buddy…he’s clueless so I had to explain what was going on. I see Jim shining his light up in the trees 10 or 12 feet and I’m standing there thinking, has he lost his mind? He follows a vine down with his light to a very alive buck standing 10 yards from us on all four legs!!! the only reason he was still there is his antlers were all kind of tangled up in a bunch of vines. We had decided at camp to not bring the rifle for safety reasons since there were a few of us looking for the deer. Only pistol we had was a freaking pistol! So we ease up to the deer and fire several rounds to the head…he finally buckled and went down. A lot of luck went into this one, and divine intervention for sure!!! Then the celebration began…my goodness what a series of events. I’m beyond happy with the buck. I honestly made a bad shot because I rushed…didn’t have much of a choice. I hit him low just in front of the left front leg and no exit. I bet if we had a dog there we would’ve lost the deer because I think he would’ve broke out of the vines with a little more pressure. Not a huge rack, but my goodness at the character! Only part I measured so far are the 6” bases.