The Legend of Lefty

We all have a deer that has held a special place in our hearts. A deer that we have found to be a more than worthy adversary an incredibly astute opponent in this incredible game that we play. I am fortunate enough to be at the apex of my pursuit of this majestic animal. Allow me to introduce you to "Lefty". I first took note of this deer in August of 2014 when i caught him on camera in the beans. I assumed him to be an above average 2.5 year old buck and really had hopes that he would make it to maturity...
I watched him throughout the early season and when the rut hit he disappeared... i went to getting a picture of him a week to zilch through November. I honestly had thought that he had been killed because he was so regular on camera... well as my spirits sank that this deer would make it another year i got a pleasant surprise at the end of December... Lefty was back and looking like he had a rough rut. In fact it was at this point that he earned his nickname because I noticed in the nighttime pic that he was blind in his left eye...
This picture sparked some hope in me. I got this pic in a deep nasty part of the woods that i thought would be well hidden from the last hardcore hunters of the 2014 season. My hope was confirmed in the spring turkey season when we found his matching sheds 50 ft apart from one another... they measured 127" with a 16" spread

well to say the least i came into the 2015 season with real high hopes that Lefty was still in town and healty. as fate would have it he became a movie star... i was getting this guy on camera every day up until season started. i really wanted to lay off this guy if possible but i knew that when i saw him on stand that it would take an incredible amount of self control not to pull the string back on him..
he was everything i had hoped he would be at 3.5yo and some... he added a nice amount of mass and split a browtine
i was intimately tied to this amazing animal by this point and became completely obsessed with him...i ended up having a couple encounters with him in October and by the time the shot even presented itself shooting light was past legal hours...i was pained because i didnt want someone else to shoot him(selfish i know) but at the same time i was relieved i didnt have to be tempted to bad...

well as fate would have it in the spring of 2016 i found another of his sheds while turkey hunting literally 20 ft from where i found them the year before...i was elated to know that he was here on the property and alive...at this point i felt as if this was his home range and from my experience he doesnt venture very far, good for me! his shed added an additional 6 inches of antler from the year before so my best guess is that he was just shy of 140"
this brought us into our 3rd trail cam season together and what i hoped would be the year he blew up! as the spring progressed the farmer that usually plants this farm decided not to plant it with anything??? i dont know why he wouldnt plant after leasing it but in any case i felt this would have a negative impact on antler growth...my first two card pulls have Lefty alive and well and right in the area i have i prepared to harvest this big mature buck that i have been so privileged to watch grow over these years...i know for a fact that hes at least 4.5 and hes added some more mass but it appears that his right G3 has suffered some type of injury and stunted its growth...more important to me however is to have built so much history with one animal and to have watched him grow and evolve and know that in less than two months i will be headed into the woods with one objective on my mind...LEFTY, on the flipside of that he will still be in the woods with the objective of staying alive...i hope he doesnt succeed

AWESOME!

You can feel great about your experience with "Lefty" regardless whether you get him or not this year. If you don't get him, he'll gain a little more mass next year, and you'll have even more history with him, and yet even more to look forward and be excited about.

Very nice buck and good luck getting him this year

Good story and good luck this year!

I love reading stories like this. I hope you get to bump heads with him again this year. To be able to single a deer out like this and to hunt him exclusively can reap a great reward but you'll have a lot of frustrating time on stand in the process. Hang tough and I hope you get that shot.

Great buck with a lot of great history, best of luck with him this fall. From the pics above, it appears there was no trophy rock on the log on July 10, but there is a new one there July 22. Did you spice up the area for him in between those dates? Or was it on the ground July 10 as it appears?

Ole Lefty has all the characteristics of dying of old age. That eye injury probably enhanced his other senses and made him even more cautious. I hope you get him. Trophy of a lifetime on many levels. I look forward to updates through the season.

Andy S.":17oj73hy said:

Great buck with a lot of great history, best of luck with him this fall. From the pics above, it appears there was no trophy rock on the log on July 10, but there is a new one there July 22. Did you spice up the area for him in between those dates? Or was it on the ground July 10 as it appears?

Click to expand...

It was on the log to start and fell off. I put it back up on the log when I checked the cams


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fairchaser":1cpnbrur said:

Ole Lefty has all the characteristics of dying of old age. That eye injury probably enhanced his other senses and made him even more cautious. I hope you get him. Trophy of a lifetime on many levels. I look forward to updates through the season.

Click to expand...

He is a wary old buck. I have noticed the older he gets the less movement from his core area he makes.


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Best of luck on your war with Lefty...stories such as this get my blood pumping!!!

Awesome! Keep us updated on how it goes


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I have a short video I got of him this past week I'm going to upload later. I just started using video mode this year on my trail cams to see if there is an advantage I can gain by watching them come in and walk away...


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Great story and pics of lefty! Hope you get a shot at him this fall.

Fun read and a great buck.

Great reading your history with lefty
Good Hunting


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Awesome story!

Very cool. Thanks for sharing

awesome i love history lessons with deer