Hassel, I have watched this buck grow up actually. I first noticed him on this farm 4 years ago when he started showing up on trail cameras. I thought he had some good potential, and actually passed him up that year. I was unable to find his sheds that spring and wondered if he had survived. The buck was a ghost for the next two following years, but I started picking up his sheds on a farm a mile away from the first encounter, he hadn't really turned into the buck we all thought he was going to. Well, last year there were more active scrapes than normal so finding a tree was pretty simple. I had hunted pretty hard for mule deer, and had been letting my whitetail scouting go a little too much...as in I hadnt checked the trail cameras on that farm for almost a month and a half. I had a day to myself, and hadn't seen a good muley the night before so I decided to go sit in a tree stand and check my cameras.
The wind was out of the south, not good for any tree on that farm, I was running late, and I bumped a herd of does on the way to the stand I picked. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon when I saw a doe working a weed draw, and could see tines sticking up in the weeds behind her, but I couldnt tell what it i was so I decided to try and bang the horns together. About the time I stood up to bang the horns together, I saw this buck standing about 75 yards, and acting like he was gonna head my way.
It is weird, the majority of the bucks running around on this farm are very aggressive when it comes to a call used correctly. This buck was no exception. He ended up turning to go the other way, and I have him a snort wheeze. He paused, looked my direction and came in on a dead run, with me still holding my rattling horns. So, as carefully as I could, I hung the horns up and grabbed my bow just in time for him to pop out of a ditch and walk past at 20 yards.
It was almost like he read my mind as I came to full draw and he stopped and looked in the direction of the other deer. Settling in on the lungs, I let the arrow go, and the buck made it about 20 yards and crashed. Perfect ending to the season.
Anyways, thats the skinny on him.