First half of the break I hunted pretty hard but didn’t see anything I wanted to kill. Spent the second half with my oldest (9 year old) trying to get him his first one and he smoked a spike. Crazy how excited you can get for such a little buck ha. If I killed a world record I don’t think I’d have been any more satisfied. Luckily got it in the first 30 min of light on the first morning so he was on cloud 9 the rest of trip. Saw several others but little to far and moving to much for him to get on em. same day after supper at camp one of the guys kinda sheepishly asked hey man you busy? Said well I gotta get these kids cleaned up and in bed but nah what you got. Said well man I shot a buck right at dark and I really think I hit it but cant find any blood or anything but it was only 20 yards. said it was a straight on chest shot which of course sometimes can make a hard recovery if they dont drop as they often wont bleed much if any on that angle. So long story short he was asking if I would bring my dog to go see if he could find it. He hadn't mentioned anything about it at all all evening and it had been almost 5 hours since he shot it which I think he just didnt want to bother me but of course I dont mind it at all. Took all of about 3 min for him to go from unclipped to chewing a hole in it. Deer had gone maybe 75-100 yards but if you have ever tried to find one in a 4 year old cutover you know how tough that can be especially in the dark with no blood.
Can’t eat the horns. I’ve never understood the allure. If it has em, fine but I hunt for meat. Sadly, many people frown on that- go figure.
Right there with ya bro. Not sure how long you'd have to boil an antler to make it taste right but if I can knock $100 off a grocery bill with one .30 bullet I will take that all day. Either way I'm happy for the boy and his kill!
I def like killing big bucks but have absolutely no issue smoking a barely legal 6er either. They all just bags of meat put here for us to eat.
