Saw a classic duet between Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson ( truely beautiful collaboration from 1983). Inspired me to do this thread. We all have had deer that mesmerized and inspired us for a few fleeting moments in time and moved out of our lives forever . So post up the one that got away that you will never forget, the one you loved and lost or maybe the one that is still out there …..
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To all the bucks I’ve loved before………
- Thread starter redblood
- Start date
Ill start with a buck named Silo, who showed up in December 2017 as a 4.5 yr old. Became a regular in 2018. I could killed him on virtually every hunt, but he was virtually tame. He taught me so much. Soent half the season trying to not shoot him on accident and the other half trying to keep him from being shot by someone else. He had no fear of humans. He died in September of 2019, shot out of a combine by a crossbow 1.5 miles away. Here are a few pics of our close encounters during the 2018 deer season
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
I have better pictures on my laptop but here's a few.
Called him just crab claw obviously. I killed a great deer 3rd day if ml in 2019. And decided I wasn't going to kill another deer besides him. 2 years history believe he was 5.5 in these pictures. He was in an awful part of that farm to hunt and kill him. I've never hunted a deer that hard and not killed him especially one that i knew was on us and basically staying on us.I got careless towards the end of the year and ended up bumping him off of our place. Never saw him again, never another trail camera picture. He got killed in 2022 by a guy 1.5 to 2 miles away. He rack was hardly nothing compared to that never would have never scored great anyways. He taught me a lot and made me say a lot of cuss words along the way. Just always thought he was a cool deer. That picture above is the only picture I got of him in daylight that year it was November 15ish and I remembered saying to myself I didn't want to tag out to early I have a stand 60 yards away and had the wind to hunt him then and i no doubt would have been in that stand that evening. Dumb me. Love chasing big mature deer. Hope I never grow tired of it.
Called him just crab claw obviously. I killed a great deer 3rd day if ml in 2019. And decided I wasn't going to kill another deer besides him. 2 years history believe he was 5.5 in these pictures. He was in an awful part of that farm to hunt and kill him. I've never hunted a deer that hard and not killed him especially one that i knew was on us and basically staying on us.I got careless towards the end of the year and ended up bumping him off of our place. Never saw him again, never another trail camera picture. He got killed in 2022 by a guy 1.5 to 2 miles away. He rack was hardly nothing compared to that never would have never scored great anyways. He taught me a lot and made me say a lot of cuss words along the way. Just always thought he was a cool deer. That picture above is the only picture I got of him in daylight that year it was November 15ish and I remembered saying to myself I didn't want to tag out to early I have a stand 60 yards away and had the wind to hunt him then and i no doubt would have been in that stand that evening. Dumb me. Love chasing big mature deer. Hope I never grow tired of it.
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Wow. What a frame!
He was a stud! We found 3 good bucks in a thicket next to the road. We think they were shot from the road.
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
great idea for a thread! I have several that come to mind…
"Peyton Manning" was a buck I first took notice of as a 2.5yo because he was a typical 12 point frame and very symmetrical. I decided to watch him the following year just out of curiosity as to what he may become as a mature buck. I had this deer narrowed down to a core area based on finding his 2.5yo sheds and 3.5yo sheds. As the 2022 season approached I was really excited to go check on my old friend. True to form I located him as soon as he shed velvet in the fall and I put a bunch of cameras on him. He was very regular in the area I wanted to hunt him however I had my attention on another more mature buck a couple counties over and made the decision to not hunt Peyton until he was 5.5 due to the lack of pressure on him in his core area and the fact that I felt like I knew him so well I could easily kill him when I decided too. In Feb of 2023 I went into his core area and just like the previous 3 years I found his sheds in his core area. When I walked up on his sheds as a 4.5 yo I was blown away at what he was actually sporting for bone! His sheds were 163" with no spread!!!! Honestly I underestimated him in trail cam photos by 10-20" in 2023. With 3 years of sheds and lots of pictures of him I began to realized year to year he was adding about 25-30" of bone as a perfectly symmetrical 12 point. I started thinking about it and if that trend continued he should be in the upper 180's to low 190's as a 5.5yo. I really thought this deer had potential to be the typical state record in the fall of 2023 and as you can imagine I was having a hard time keeping it to myself. I told a couple of close friends about the buck and what I thought he would be in a few months and that was my mistake…someone in my circle spilled the beans about Peyton to a country music singer here who is a big hunter. They secured the property right next to Peyton's bedding area and began to bait him through the summer. Opening evening of bow season they shot him over a pile of corn (not speculation I have pictures). My only solace in the whole deal was that as a 5.5 yo he threw a 5x6 rack instead of the perfectly symmetrical one he had sported for 3 years prior. He scored 183". Moral of the story for me "loose lips sink ships". Now I don't speak about a deer I'm hunting to anyone until he's dead…
"Peyton Manning" was a buck I first took notice of as a 2.5yo because he was a typical 12 point frame and very symmetrical. I decided to watch him the following year just out of curiosity as to what he may become as a mature buck. I had this deer narrowed down to a core area based on finding his 2.5yo sheds and 3.5yo sheds. As the 2022 season approached I was really excited to go check on my old friend. True to form I located him as soon as he shed velvet in the fall and I put a bunch of cameras on him. He was very regular in the area I wanted to hunt him however I had my attention on another more mature buck a couple counties over and made the decision to not hunt Peyton until he was 5.5 due to the lack of pressure on him in his core area and the fact that I felt like I knew him so well I could easily kill him when I decided too. In Feb of 2023 I went into his core area and just like the previous 3 years I found his sheds in his core area. When I walked up on his sheds as a 4.5 yo I was blown away at what he was actually sporting for bone! His sheds were 163" with no spread!!!! Honestly I underestimated him in trail cam photos by 10-20" in 2023. With 3 years of sheds and lots of pictures of him I began to realized year to year he was adding about 25-30" of bone as a perfectly symmetrical 12 point. I started thinking about it and if that trend continued he should be in the upper 180's to low 190's as a 5.5yo. I really thought this deer had potential to be the typical state record in the fall of 2023 and as you can imagine I was having a hard time keeping it to myself. I told a couple of close friends about the buck and what I thought he would be in a few months and that was my mistake…someone in my circle spilled the beans about Peyton to a country music singer here who is a big hunter. They secured the property right next to Peyton's bedding area and began to bait him through the summer. Opening evening of bow season they shot him over a pile of corn (not speculation I have pictures). My only solace in the whole deal was that as a 5.5 yo he threw a 5x6 rack instead of the perfectly symmetrical one he had sported for 3 years prior. He scored 183". Moral of the story for me "loose lips sink ships". Now I don't speak about a deer I'm hunting to anyone until he's dead…
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Here is a few over the past few years i never laid eyes on
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East TN Bowhunter
Well-Known Member
This guy was a true East TN mountain stud a couple years ago and was bedding on some family property. I was getting a ton of pics of him from July until the last day I ever saw him which was October 19th. I could've hunted him the evening TN played Florida in September, instead I went to the game with my wife. He was in front of my camera that evening 1.5hrs before sunset. Other than that one evening, once archery opened he was never there in daylight. I never actually hunted his bed and I regret it to this day. I hope some other hunter was lucky enough to harvest this giant. Crazy thing was he was only a 7 point and had probably a 22-24inch spread.
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What part of the state was this?
Snake
Well-Known Member
That's a wide one ! Did you kill him ?
Southern Middle
Snake
Well-Known Member
Awesome !
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
Man that is a shame, did the singer who shot him get caught for baiting?
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
Here's one that I screwed up real good 
I located this buck on a big ridge system that had about 300' of elevation change. I had around 900 acres I could hunt in this area but this buck was only using one bench to traverse the property. I narrowed him down to a pinch point where he was crossing a deep drainage on his travel corridor. I setup in a huge white oak on Nov 9th at 10:30 he pushed a doe right down the bench towards me. As they began to enter bow range for whatever reason the doe skirted behind me at 25 yards and naturally he followed. I attempted to turn in my loc on and shoot him behind me off my right shoulder but the tree was too big!! I couldn't get on him and I watched him saunter off after his gal…that was the only time I saw him on the hoof. Lesson learned stay out of huge trunked trees you can't shoot behind!!
I located this buck on a big ridge system that had about 300' of elevation change. I had around 900 acres I could hunt in this area but this buck was only using one bench to traverse the property. I narrowed him down to a pinch point where he was crossing a deep drainage on his travel corridor. I setup in a huge white oak on Nov 9th at 10:30 he pushed a doe right down the bench towards me. As they began to enter bow range for whatever reason the doe skirted behind me at 25 yards and naturally he followed. I attempted to turn in my loc on and shoot him behind me off my right shoulder but the tree was too big!! I couldn't get on him and I watched him saunter off after his gal…that was the only time I saw him on the hoof. Lesson learned stay out of huge trunked trees you can't shoot behind!!
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tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
I didn't turn him in that's not my job.
hunters will always be that no matter what…
No another guy found him dead in a thicket close to the road. We think he was shot from the road.
