Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Let's See some Really Big Deer

Maybe not huge for everywhere, but definitely huge for Alabama. Copying this from my post on on AL Deer from 12/6/15:

Just got home from dropping my deer off at Indian Creek in Edwin (Abbeville). So today me and my hunting lease partner made good on plans we had had for weeks to put an old tripod up in some young planted pines and cut shooting lanes for it. We spent 3 hours or so sweating and cutting limbs and small trees with a chainsaw and polesaw. Made all kinds of racket. I had always heard deer were curious, so I decided I'd sit in it after eating some lunch.

Got in the stand around 2:30. Fighting mosquitoes. About 3:15 out steps a shooter. Had no idea how big he was other than he was a shooter. He came out around 110-115 yards away, I've laid big deer down with my 7 mag at distances more than 3 times that far away. So I shoot, lower the rifle and see him coming full speed down the shooting lane towards me! I swear it sounded like a freight train! When he gets about 40 yards away he is blocked by a pile of our fresh cut limbs and darts into the pines to my left. He comes around and runs full speed RIGHT by the tripod. I mean he almost hit one of the legs. I'm yelling HEY!!! HEY!!! trying to get him to stop, and he won't. He is right up under the tripod so I shoot, freehand, not even looking through the scope and he hits the ground, rolls, and gets back up and keeps running. I heard maybe 5 seconds of heavy crashing and then silence. I'm thinking YES, big buck down!

So I'm sitting there, already sweating from having overdressed. I wait a few minutes and get down and find just a few drops of blood in the pines on the first leg of his journey but nothing where I shot the 2nd time and he rolled. So I back out. Walk to the truck, meet my buddy. Mistake #1: put my rifle in my truck. Buddy gets his 40 just in case. We take the gator back through the pines to the tripod and not 10 feet from the tripod we get on a SOLID blood trail, one of the best I've ever seen. We trailed maybe 40 yards when all of the sudden my buddy (who is ahead of me) starts saying a lot of bad words and says THERE HE IS THERE HE IS! I run up and he is laid down looking at his in the briars about 15 feet away. I ask my friend for his 40 and put it right behind his shoulder and pulled the trigger.

HE GETS UP. AND CHARGES ME. I emptied the 40 while running backwards and I'm pulling the trigger and its going click click click as I've spent the 8 rounds in the gun and the buck slides down on his head and front legs about 5 feet from me, but with his hind legs still in the air. My spray and pray tore his throat and somehow (thank the good Lord, or else I probably would have been gored) took out both front wheels, though we think my first shot from the 7 mag had severely limited his right one already.

So there he is as we've backed away a few yards, snorting and blowing blood EVERYWHERE with his hind legs and butt still up in the air but his neck laying on the ground and he is STILL TRYING TO PUSH TOWARDS US!! He keeps falling over and then "laying" like that for about 15 minutes and we decide to go all the way out, wait half an hour, and come back in with my rifle while it is still light in case he is still alive.

So we do that, get there, AND HE'S STILL ALIVE!!! I put a round into his left shoulder with my 7 mag and he gets up and pushes his way with his back legs another 10 yards deeper in the briars!!! We get to where we can see him again and hes breathing very heavily and gurgling and blowing blood everywhere and thrashing. After 2-3 minutes he finally lays his head over, and after a few more minutes we commence to dragging. I have a deer cart but had left it at another one of our leases Friday. From now on it stays in the back of the truck!!

Only 17" inside spread, but his G2's are each 13.5" and his G3's are 11.5". Definitely my new record, which I had just reset with a hoss of an 11 point in Georgia on Halloween day that scored 142 4/8". This will be my first mounted deer, been doing rack mounts myself. He weighed 220 on the dot at the processor after losing a TON of blood. And I mean a TON!

Thank God for another day in the woods among these amazing creatures. This buck's will to live was absolutely incredible, I hope I never come across one as tough as this again!