Mature bucks are a different animal than little deer!

[H Rhodes]

  Saturday morning dawned cold and clear for a welcome change.  I paddled into a north wind in my canoe across a cypress pond which is bordered by a thinly timbered briarpatch of a bedding area.  Last year I had placed a ladder stand on an exit trail from the bedding area.  The trail runs a funnel between a small creek and the briarpatch.  I paddled silently and made very little noise getting into the stand for the first time hunting it this season.  I counted 9 does which filed out of that bedding area.  Each doe turned RIGHT and passed me quartering away at 15 to 20 yards.  I knew that this area contained a true trophy, so I waited.  I posted a picture of a huge rub that I believe was his last season.  Some of you may remember it.  That rub was about two hundred yards from where I placed this stand.  I have thought about this buck for a whole year.   The doe parade ended about 8:30 AM.  At 9:15 I saw him.  A mature whitetail buck.  Dark patch on the forehead, wide and tall rack with good mass - dark colored swamp deer - biggest buck I have ever been close to.  Where each of the previous 9 deer had turned RIGHT - he turned left....  He walked in the open for me to behold at a range of about 40 yards.  He stopped in an impossibly thick area twenty yards to my right and stood there looking in my direction for about 15 minutes.  A big buck will stand motionless for much longer periods of time than lesser deer, and this ole boy was good at being a trophy deer.  He was better at being a trophy than I am at being a trophy hunter...  I will never forget him.   A pump .12 gauge would have made it easy - but he deserves better than that.  Our season ends February 10.  I don't know if I will try that spot again this year.  If I don't, I know where I will be in October.       

[JW_Halverson]

Hoowah!  You laid eyes on him, that's a whole heck of a lot more than he wanted even if it is less than you wanted. 

[Danzn Bar]

Cool story Howard.....Good luck with that big boy!
DBar

[H Rhodes]

Thanks JW and Danzn Bar.  I do feel blessed just to have been so close to him.  I am not normally a guy who looks for the big racks - generally I am a meat hunter, but this deer is located in an area that the landowners designate as a big bucks only type of spot.  I do want to stay in their good graces, but to be honest, I was determined to see who made that huge rub, and who has been making these scrapes that are as big as a dining room table.  I have deer hunted all my life and have taken some nice deer, but nothing to compare with this one.  They don't get that big by being stupid.  Here is a picture of my father-in-law with one of his relatives.  This deer was killed in the same area in the last couple of years.  Good genetics along the Tombigbee River.  You never know what is going to walk out on you.   

[H Rhodes]

The one that fooled me Saturday was more deer than that one pictured above and would have been the finest buck I have ever taken.  Here is a pic of my buddy standing near his rub last year.  That rub is on a red oak.  That deer had to have some serious attitude, huh?

[JW_Halverson]

Big buck boy is part beaver?

[H Rhodes]

Ha!  That was all antler work brother.

[JW_Halverson]

Ha!  That was all antler work brother.

Look for a really big body buck with worn off nubs on his head!

[H Rhodes]

Smart as that sucker seems to be, he may be a skinny old cowhorn next time I get a look at him...  Why in the world would nine deer turn right and he turned left?  I still don't have a clue why he went that way or where he was going.  When he stepped out of that thicket on the same trail that the ladies had been walking, I already had him grilled, stuffed and mounted in my mind.  When he walked away I could not believe it.  Thanks for reading this venting session.  I have been asked by family, friends and co-workers "why are you shaking for head?" ever since that morning.  I may have developed a nervous tick.   Still in disbelief!  I love this stuff.  I am hooked for life and will never get tired of trying to match wits with these magnificent creatures.  They are really special animals. 

[JW_Halverson]

Another one that paid for the whole ride, refuses to sleep and miss the view!

[burchett.donald]

 Howard,
              Ya gotta give him one more try...Enjoy the hunt my friend, he will turn right next time ...
                                                                                                                                                Don

[Pappy]

Great story, enjoyed that. Good luck on you adventure.
 Pappy

[Dakota Kid]

A big buck like that knows when a predator is nearby. He turned left cause he knew he was being hunted. He didn't see you but part of him knew. Keep at it. He'll make a mistake eventually, probably just one though. I'll assume it's post rut where your at as well. He was probably to exhausted and hormone deficient to follow the ladies at this point. I'm actually surprised you saw him during daylight at all. Good luck, my he offer himself to the hunter.

[H Rhodes]

Thanks Don.  If I get another perfect wind and it feels right, I may sit there one more time.  I wish I were going to be off on the full moon.  He strikes me as the type to move around right in the middle of the day.  I feel like I am playing checkers with a chess master. 

Thanks Pappy.  I hope I get to entertain you with a picture of him hanging from my skinning rack one day.  Either way you pegged it - it is an adventure. 

I agree with you Dakota Kid.  They have a sixth sense and, unlike most humans, they react to it, commit to it, and survive.  Yeah, I think the rut is winding down early this year.  He had no interest in that harem at all.  Post rut is a tough time, but all that mating has got to make a fellow hungry - it does me .  I know where he eats, where he sleeps, and where he runs to when it gets ugly...  I have looked into his goings and comings until I thought I had him figured. He has more to teach me though, I can feel it.  Smart critters in what we call 'the north lake swamp'.  There is a group of gobblers in there that roost in that same cypress pond - we call them the 'north lake mafia'.  They have bigger medicine than these big bucks, but that is another story.     

[BowEd]

Bucks here during rut do not follow the same paths as the does.There will be a beat down deer path and the old buck will walk crosswise to it.They are unpredictable and a challenge for sure.They are looking for love so you know other things take a backseat.I see them here too.Fighting with each other and breeding does.Makes for a worth while hunt.A muzzleloader could get em but I prefer the charge it leaves after getting a shot with the self bow.Good luck on getting him.