Dear Mr. Wenzel, Attached are some pics of the deer I left the voicemail messages about. I was in a slight panic, because he headed into the chest-high CRP grass. It would've killed me to have lost this guy. I've never seen one this big while hunting before...and I've been hunting in the midwest for 15 years now. I was trespassed on in the first 15 minutes on daylight.1 Two shots rang out about fifty yards south of me...scared the crap outta me. A doe and a big eight-pointer came running outta the ditch in front of me and started to circle. I hid behind a tree in case the shooter kept firing. Luckily, he saw me and didn't shoot. He said he knows the landowner (Dave), and he (Dave) told him nobody should be hunting it. After talking to him, I got the general feeling he was being honest, and he apologized for messing up my hunt.2 He did say he'd been bowhunting the place earlier this year too. Personally, I think the landowner should get a call. There was another hunting party I later saw pushing the north timber, but I didn't talk to anyone, since I saw them from quite a distance.3 That afternoon, it sounded like someone was cutting firewood, and I saw a four-wheeler ripping through the cattle pasture.4 I just started laughing...it does no good to get mad about these things. I just decided to pack things up start heading back to the truck.5 I'm glad I did...
I set my LED head lamp on strobe, stuck it on the deer, and left to get my game carrier. The grass was still so thick that I couldn't see the strobe after 50 feet or so. I was able to find him again, load him in the carrier (barely), and haul him out to a field road. After field dressing him, I was challenged with getting him in the back of the pickup. He weighed 220lbs dressed, while I weigh 190lbs...this would be fun. After much grunting and cussing, I managed to get him in there. The adrenaline was wearing off, and my body was starting to hurt. :) What a roller coaster ride. I went from scared to angry to bored to amused to surprised to excited to frustrated and back to excited to exhausted in one day. I'd love to do it all over again. Anyhow, this beast had a 19"
inside spread, 11+" G2's and 10+" G3's. The right main beam and G4
were damaged while still in velvet and will cause nearly 8" of
deductions. Gross green score was 167 5/8 by my measurements (for
whatever that's worth). After a total of 11" of deductions, he nets
156 5/8 green. That'll keep him short of the 160 B&C minimum. He was
only 4 years old too! |
I
wasn't 100 yards from my truck when noticed two doe and a small
six-pointer standing out in the grass. I watched them for
about five minutes, when this buck stepped out into the open. I
could tell he was a shooter, but I didn't think he was THIS
big. I propped my gun up on my shooting sticks and squeezed
one off. He was about 125 yards away, so the loud THUD that reported
back told me I hit him good. He turned and limped off into the
chest-high CRP grass. I tried to mark the spot the best I could, but
it was getting dark. By time I got down to the spot,
everything looked the same. The light from my flashlight only
bounced off the blades of grass directly
in front of me. I started circling, but I could only see the ground
2 or 3 feet around me. That's when I called you to see if I could
come back in the morning. It'd been an hour since I shot, and I was
getting frustrated. Not ten minutes after I left you the message, I
stumbled upon some tines.
