Opening day!

84° saturday evening. Best hunt of my life.

Holy crap! That is a real whopper!

NICE!

I see why Ohio is the place to hunt..Awesome buck, congrats!

Dang nice deer! You should be proud.

Congrats on a great buck !

very nice but we need details man--details.

Nice buck!!

That is a great buck. Thanks for sharing.

Nice one, congratulations. He has some character - like the crab claw and split brow.

Congrats that's nice one.

I can not tell how many points it has but I would say a lot .Without you giving any detail it is certainly a dandy . You look young so you have a whole life time to top that one . Congrats and good luck

Great buck!

Chris

Holy smokes, that is a dandy!
Congrats, Zim

Nice Buck!

One to be proud of.

Real nice buck right there. Congrats. Agree with the above. We need details.

This is my 20th deer season and I couldn't have asked for a better way to start it off! I decided to hunt a new section of the farm this year and started putting cameras out early July to see what was in the area. Shortly after, I started getting pictures of this buck along with others, but he was the biggest by far. He was pretty consistent all through the summer and through the middle of September.

Opening day comes and it's 84 degrees, but I had a good wind so I decide to head out. I started seeing fawns and does around 4:15, then the bucks started to show up in the bean field behind me around 6. A little over an hour later and out walks this buck with two does. Now I typically don't get buck fever but when he walked out I started breathing heavily and shaking like crazy. I had two openings in the canopy out into the bean field, one at 50 and the other at 30 yards. When he stepped out he was in the 50 yard hole but quickly moved towards some other deer in the field edge bringing him in the 30 yard hole at a fast pace. I drew back, sat down, settled my pin behind his shoulder and released. Unfortunately he was quartering too a little and I hit him high and back. He ran out of the field and right under my stand stopping at 80 yards, swayed back an forth then slowly walked into a thicket where I heard a crash. Not feeling confident in the shot I backed out and waited until 2am to start on the blood trail.

At 2am I picked up the trail and found good bubble blood on the right but gut blood and contents on the left (exit hole). The blood trail quickly dried up at 40 yards and I was thinking the worst! So I decided to go to where I last saw him enter the thicket, my light quickly found a white patch of hair and I was ecstatic and relieved all at the same time. He must have died fairly quick as he was stiff and fell face first in a log. Upon gutting, the arrow passed through the right lung, liver and out through the gut possibly nicking the artery that runs along the back. Stomach contents revealed tons of red oak acorns and that might have been the reason they all were eating the (still green soy beans) to help with digestion. I will never forget this hunt for the rest of my life.

He has 16 possibly 17 scorable points. After the taxidermist finishes with caping I'll try to get a score on him. Any guesses?

This is the form I chose, any thoughts?

That mount will show off the early season cape really well. But looking at pictures is always hard to tel but I would say he would go 170-180 once he drys. Darn nice deer tho! Hopefully you took measurements around the neck under the ears and around the base of the neck. Want to make sure that taxidermist gets the muscles in the neck right because they will stand out with that cape.

I guess 160 gross

great buck ,thanks for sharing ,post mount when you get it back

Good deer. Good job

congrats on a tine deer! i have 2 deer on this form qnd another being mounted on it. they look great.

164-168 gross

My thoughts exactly, I always wanted an early Cape to really show the detail.

Good job.Great deer.

That's a purdy nice buck!

Wow! What a beautiful deer. I like your choice of mounting position too.

Good on you. You could fit three of the deer I get to shoot into that one.

Pete

That is an awesome deer! Congratulations!

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I'm still re playing this hunt over and over in my mind and will for a long time.

Do you see many deer like that in your area? He sure is a good one. Dont forget to keep us up dated on the score.

Holy cow, what a monster. Congratulations!!