Rattlin' em up and Knockin' em down!!!

Bob and I only had until 8:45 to get a deer on Thursday so we had to make it count. We were heading down to 3J's Archery for Bob to give the guys a once over on the website before we could get back in the woods. Boobie had always wanted to hunt in my ghetto spots and said it was on his bucket list.... I had a ton of bucks cruising around and even some daylight stuff on cam and with that area being my best late october rattling area we were pretty amped!!!  I told Bob he could shoot pretty much any buck unless 2 I had on cam showed themselves. They had been pretty late movers as of late but ya never know.



The week before during the ML season I had rattled in and shot a buck with my Son that I would normally give a free pass... But the rattling, crashing, and running in was too much excitement for both of us so I shot it on the ML tag I would eat anyway. It was great fun and had me really looking forward to a repeat from a larger buck.





I rattled 4 times throughout the morning with zero reaction... We figured one more before we get down and go in a half hour... 5 minutes after that mock battle Bob and I were back to acting stupid in the tree... so stupid in fact that if it weren't for his labored breathing when he said a big one was coming I would have never believed it!!!

I knew who it was once I saw him...I have been calling him "Sway" since Paul and I saw him last week but I had seen this buck off and on all season... The last good trailcam photo was last week but I had a couple 7 and 8 am quick shots a few days ago on this scrape...



I was totally unprepared to shoot as I was fully expecting to be filming... The cam arm was on my tree...had to get the cam out and into Bobs hands as the buck was coming... The buck was dipping down in the creek and seemingly hiding while surveying the situation... (Paul and I had seen this buck at another spot squaring off with a smaller racked buck last week...He seemed timid and not the aggressive type so I was surprised he responded) He was cautious and trying his best to get completely downwind but we had 3 blockers to keep that from happening... an open yard, a shed, and a house!!! hehehe....



The buck was now at 13 yards standing down in the creek... I was getting my quiver off the bow and nocking an arrow while kinda stalling to let Bob get some footage....  The lead up was pretty anti-climactic as we had this guy duped... The wind was in our favor...We were in a new tree that is like sitting in the palm of a hand with loads of cover...and the buck was scanning everywhere but up for the "fighters" he had heard.

Once I was sure Bob was on the deer and steady with the cam I drew... Made sure I was free from obstructions... buried the pin and straight smoked this buck!!! I took out one lung and skewered the heart before exiting the front side of the opposite leg. The bounded off as Bob threw the camera on to me... We were starting to give high fives when we heard the big boy crash and take down a tree!!!







We had to get down and take pics quick so we could hit the road...I was happy that the buck had a little ground "gainage" as I was about 6 or 7 inches off my estimate...we got some great pics and recovery footage as well as some shots we have been wanting for a while...We were only a tad bit late for the meeting!!!









While down there we took the deer to a local butcher was kind enough to cape the deer for taxidermy and had a family he could donate the meat to so we could get back in a tree for the eve....



I was more confident for the eve than I was for the morning at an unhunted stand location but the heat, the moon, and the neighborhood construction had other plans...

What a great day!!! I owe ya big Bob!!!