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Awesome buck Coop!!

thanks! first buck ive had shoulder mounted since the one in my profile pics, been doing euros. But this one is such a cool rack (i dig tall tight racks) that i took him to the taxidermist, bout had a stroke, paid 475 for my last one, this one is 750!!!!

Congratulations on a nice buck! Big too. What did you shoot him with? Judging from that exit hole he didn't go far after the shot.

7-08AI actually thats the entrance, he was facing me and the bullet rode down a couple ribs before it entered the chest cavity, he actually went about 200 yards, didnt find blood first for 80 yards.

Amazing how they sometimes can go so far.

That’s quite wild that it went that far with a hole like that.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving was the WI deer opener. We hunt northwest WI, in Douglass County, on county and state land with the pumpkin army. Deer sightings were difficult this season to say the least. I hunted about 5 full days of bow hunting without success. Saw deer everyday but nothing too exciting. There just isn't a lot of deer around.

Opening day the wind was out of the SW which doesn't give my son or I a lot of options for stand locations. But he did have a good spot and was seeing deer immediately. I was about 1.5 miles away and also started seeing deer about 1/2hr after sun rise. Our other two buddies with us hadn't seen anything by lunch.

Jack picked the stand he wanted and I took the leftover for what we had set up for a south wind. We call it "The Double Ladder" well...because it's a double ladder. It's also the stand that Jack shot his first deer from 7 years ago. We've never seen a buck from it, let alone shoot one from it. There was actually some decent sign near it though. I was carrying a Win M70 XTR Fwt, in .270 with 130gr Federal Blue Box.

Around 7:00am I saw a deer come out to the east and walk north (stand faces north) along the trail I came in on. It had it's tail up, but was walking. I couldn't tell if it was a buck or a doe. but it walked out of sight, tail up the entire time.

At 7:10 2 more deer came from the east, walking west, past me to the north. The first one got past me before I could really see what it was since it was in the brush and kinda still dark out. The next one stopped when it caught my wind. A doe, about 50 yards away. She was on high alert sniffing the air and looking at me for about 5 minutes. Then a close shot cracked off. Close enough that I about sh'it myself. They bolted at the shot to the north. Shortly after, Jack texted that he'd seen 8 deer, 2 were bucks, and he passed both.

At 7:35am I heard a stick crack behind me, which is to the south. Without moving my body, I looked behind me and saw a decent buck looking towards where the does ran. He stood there for a bit. I couldn't get a good look at him because I didn't want to move. He caught me anyway and had me pegged. He moved quickly, west into the brush about 40 yards away, turning 1/4'ing too me. I could now see he was something I sure wasn't going to pass up in this country we were in. Decent mass and outside the ears....

I took the shot. He stood still for a full second. Then jumped to the north running a circle back to the east. He disappeared behind some trees. I though I saw him go down, but wasn't sure. Five minutes later a fork or a spike came from the west, walking right at me. He hit the spot where the buck crossed and followed that way. When he got to where I was pretty sure I saw the other one fall, he gave no indication at all that it was laying there. Now I didn't know what to think. I didn't want to text any of the guys until I was sure of what happened...or not at all if I missed. I climbed down when I calmed a bit and could see him laying about 40 yards away. Dead'r 'n heck.

I must have hit some brush on the shot because I was aiming for high, onside shoulder and hit it square in the neck. Nice Northwoods 8pt.


exit side


cooling down, waiting for my dragging help.


exit hole on the pole

Congrats buddy! That's a good buck!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good with shot placement! Great stuff!

Good for you Tom !!

After getting the buck hung up and having a quick bite for lunch. We headed back out, grabbing my Kimber Montana, .223 Rem this time. I picked another spot that we've not sat in before but did have a trail cam in. Hunting about 1/4 mile my buddy and his son that were with us and about 2 miles from where I was in the morning.

It was kind of a pinch between 2 logging roads, that dropped down into a bottom, below the roads. Just old overgrown sand roads. I was sitting on the ground this time on a folding stool, tucked up against a spruce in a spot I could see/shoot 75 yards or so. Kind of a pine/popple/tag mix. Good looking stuff. One of those spots you can see better from the ground than you can a treestand. I sat for about 3 hours without any action at all. Hell, not even squirrels. About 4:10 I heard it....crunch, crunch, crunch. Yep, no mistaking the cadence. It was a deer. It stopped for a bit but I had the wind on my side again, so I sat still.

I saw the rack move before I saw or heard anything else. Looked tall and decent beams. He then started stomping. But not stomping like he saw me. More like marching through the tags. He looked huge through the scope. I dropped it down to the heart and shot. He mule kicked, took 2 hops and down he went. Didn't go 20.

I gave him a few minutes to do his thing, walked over and had the shrinkage. Not the kind I usually get because it was cold. The kind when your deer is smaller on the ground than when you thought. While I was gutting him, I heard a crashing behind where my stool was set up. Saw a tail and a big body go up the hill and an orange guy coming down. It was my buddy, who heard me shoot. His eyes were big and said "well I know you didn't shoot one bigger than what I just saw run up the hill."

The shot was a perfect heart shot. The heart was literally detached for the rest of the gooey parts when we gutted it.

That made some sense as to why this guy was "marching" and was all postured up, making him look big. Anyway, we got him tagged and dragged to the truck and back to camp. It was a heckova fun opening day.

Thank you fellas!

Might not have been a monster, but still a good buck. Nice work!

I agree it's still a nice buck. I was still excited and more than happy to get it. That's the only 2 we got so we're greatful for them.

Absolutely. what bullet are you using in the 223? TTSX?

Wow, nice, 3 bucks for the 'Zone household !

I thought you had already posted that Jack got 1 too ?

Yep he got one in GA a few weeks back

55gr TTSX

Roger that !

Good work Tom and nice write up!!

Is the 223 your only Kimber rifle? For some reason I thought you had another Kimber??