The Saga of Grandpa's Buck...

I tagged my buck for 2013 today at about 3pm, but the story really goes back 2 years. As many of you know, I used to make trips to hunt my grandpa's farm in East Tennessee (Hawkins County) for deer and turkey. Grandpa passed away at age 90 in October, 2011. I wanted like everything for the family to keep the farm, but it was decided to auction it off. I was devastated! I'd loved that place more than anywhere on earth since I was a small boy. My dad was raised there. There is a lot of me in that land. My wife and I considered trying to buy part of it, but decided it was just too far from home to manage. The sale happened. My wife and I decided to look for land closer to home. We found the place in Dearborn County. I fell in love with it because it looks a lot like Tennessee down there. We used some money from the sale of Grandpa's place as a down payment and got our little 33.3 acre slice of heaven a year ago in July. Now I feel like there is a little bit of Grandpa in my land. I think about him every time I walk it.

We hunted our land some last year, but didn't have a lot of time to figure it out. We went without harvesting a deer there last year, though I did take a coyote with my muzzleloader.

I was thinking about Grandpa a lot as I sat the long hours in stand this week. I was blessed by seeing tons of deer and turkeys. I saw 7 or 8 bucks between Tuesday and today, but all were 1.5 year olds.

I saw several does in the morning and passed on a couple easy shots. I saw one young buck go by mid day. I decided I would tough it out and sit all day. Between 1 and 2pm, I had a couple does slip right in on me without hearing them. I told myself to stay on guard.

At about 2:45, I saw a deer down the road about 70 yards to my left in the same spot where I had seen so many deer emerge on Tuesday. I lost track of it a moment and was trying to relocate it. Finally, I saw it again and just as I was trying to identify if it was a buck or doe, I caught movement to my immediate left. I glanced down and saw a big bodied buck standing 25 yards from me! Where he came from I'll never know. I didn't have time to size up antlers much, but I saw enough antler and body to tell me he was mature enough.

I reached up and slowly retrieved my crossbow from the hanger and found him in the scope. He took a step to reveal his vitals and I let fly at 25 yards. The shot looked and sounded good. He wheeled and ran straight away from me. I sat in disbelief for a few moments, said a prayer of thanks, sent some texts, and waited as long as I could before checking the hit site.

I saw good bright blood right away, though I didn't see my bolt (I found it after the recovery, right where I should have found it before). I slowly started investigating the trail. It was an easy track, but I took it slow, not wanting to push it. He went about 175 yards and died in a deep drainage ditch. Rather than drag him up the ridge to where I was parked (my farmer neighbor lets me park on his place on top of the ridge and enter my land from the back so I don't have to walk up our steep ridge to hunt), I dragged the buck down the steep ditch to my access road near the base of the ridge. Then I hiked back up to my truck to drive down to field dress my deer. On that long walk back, it all sank in. I got very emotional. I said another prayer of thanks and told Grandpa this was his buck. Then it started to snow...

I'm pretty sure this buck was 3.5 years old. I didn't measure him yet, but I'm sure he'll be in the mid 120s. He's my biggest archery buck. I'm having a European mount done and Grandpa's buck will have a special place in my man cave and in my heart.

Here is how he looked laying in the ditch as I walked up to him.



Here was my first good look at him...



And here is the pic my deer processor took for me...



It's been quite a week fellas. I've enjoyed sharing it with you. I look forward to following your hunts on the "Live from the Stand" thread. I will now be guiding for my wife and daughter. I also have a Big Oaks hunt on Nov. 23-24. Good luck all!