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Post by astronankin on Oct 9, 2023 10:11:41 GMT -5
While hunting. Maybe you've been able to get a shot off at them. Or like me, maybe not. Back in 2014 Dad and I were hunting Thanksgiving morning at a southern Tippecanoe County Purdue property. The only deer we saw that morning was a big 12 pt that snuck up on us from behind. He circled and came in front of us. I was stupid then (first deer season) and moved right when Dad was about to pull off a shot at him. We were sitting in camp chairs on the ground under some evergreens, so had some cover but evidently not enough to completely hide us from him. He saw us multiple times. I was looking ahead and happened to glance towards the side and saw Dad flat against the back of the chair not moving. I asked him what was going on and he wispered "Buck right behind us." Well I turned around to see the biggest deer I'd ever seen standing staring right at us 5 ft away! When you are on the ground, you appreciate the size and strength of these deer more than you would from a stand. Then he circled around, and never gave me a clean shot (I was being more careful too because Dad was sitting on that side, at one point I literally had the gun resting on Dad's lap). Then he stopped and I foolishly moved. Off he goes. Dad got buck fever so bad that he agreed to go attempt to track the buck down! I've never see him so pumped since.
Then in October 2015 Dad took me hunting. He sat in one stand without a weapon (he doesn't really shoot his bow and we only had one crossbow), and I sat in another stand with the crossbow 100 yards away across a ravine. We had to go to a family function that afternoon so we had to be done hunting by 10:30. Well about 9:30 I am watching for deer and see this huge shoulder step into an open space between two trees right between Dad and I. Well this buck had come under his stand, hit his wind, and started circling back but had hit Dad's wind again. I knew from the body size that this was a true monster. Dad tell me how big he is over our walkie-talkies. The buck then turns and comes down the deer trail towards me (on the other side of the ravine). Now I can see he is a super dark mature deer with a super wide and extremely massive rack. His antlers were mahogany colored, he had split tines, kickers, and two spiraling droptines. He was a mainframe 12 pt, and now that I think about it, had well over 200" in antlers. He didn't stop immediately at around 50 yards when I called, and his vitals were covered by bushes. So I relaxed and waited for another opportunity, which I thought was gone. Well he continues down the deer trail. Suddenly he comes out of the cover and thinks about crossing the ravine to come towards me! Well I got too careful then and decided not to shoot. He turns back into the cover, and heads down the trail. Unfortunately it's now time to leave the woods. If we had had more time I think he might have eventually worked his way right to my stand based on the fact that he thought about crossing the ravine.
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Post by scrub-buster on Oct 11, 2023 7:45:35 GMT -5
I used to carry a digital camera with me during the rut when I was on night shift. I got some good pictures of bucks on the drive home. This buck was across the road from our property. It's the biggest I've ever seen and I'm glad I got some pictures of it. I never heard of anyone killing a buck this size in the area. It was very symmetrical and had very long tines. I'm guessing it would have scored pretty high.
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Post by SFC (R) B on Oct 11, 2023 9:37:26 GMT -5
The biggest I've seen while hunting was my first year hunting in Indiana, Thanksgiving week 2008. I was hunting a farm outside Warsaw that I had permission through a friend of a friend. The only weapon I had that was legal in IN at the time was my son's single shot 20 ga. 50 yds was my max with that little smooth bore bugger. I was sitting on a bucket at the corner of a cut corn field, some woods and a fence line that ran along a pasture...watching mostly the corn field. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement. I turn my head to see a BIG, thick and dark antlered, monster of a deer clear the fence and land in the fence line clearing before walking into a big thicket/bedding area that was off limits to hunt per the owner. He was 150-200 yds away and all I could do was gawk. If it was this year with any of my rifles I would be the proud owner of a Booner Where I live here in Colorado Springs I see huge muley on the regular, including in my yard. Like this guy.... www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2011/04/huge-mule-deer-record-goliath-sheds-found/
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Post by tynimiller on Oct 11, 2023 15:32:07 GMT -5
I've seen some I think would have scored better but my 175 incher from 2018 is the biggest confirmed. Now I was hunting a buck hard that went 183, but a neighbor got him and I never did see him in person.
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Post by welder on Oct 11, 2023 16:04:23 GMT -5
Back in the "glory years" I personally saw several unbelievable bucks inside the Army Ammunition Plant in Newport Indiana. If you were ever in there, you know what I mean,if you weren't, you wouldn't believe me if I told you.
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Post by Ahawkeye on Oct 11, 2023 16:08:53 GMT -5
Ever? WOW! He was a MONSTER 8pt! We call that day "The Day of Days" we were hunting flooded river bottoms and the deer were cosentrated in a small area. As we eased the boat up a huge 8 point was bedded close by. Dad saw him and asked our hunting hunting partner not to tie up but to push the boat back out. Dad tried to point him out to me but I never did see that buck until he spooked. That was the biggest dang deer I had ever seen. I hear 8 points have a hard time scoring high (I don't pay much attention to scores anyway) but he would have been up there! This was in Illinois and we think we saw him at a deer show the next year. Absolutely MASSIVE! Wished I would have seen him but I did get my first buck a few minutes later, a 7 point and there's a story on that too for another day. That day did two things for me, it got me my first buck and it showed me a giant. I will never forget either of those deer I doubt I will ever see a deer as big as that buck but I do know that if I ever get a chance at one that size again he won't make it very far past my stand! A few years later I saw another very nice deer while hunting but nothing as big as that 8 point.
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Post by duff on Oct 11, 2023 16:26:22 GMT -5
Back in the "glory years" I personally saw several unbelievable bucks inside the Army Ammunition Plant in Newport Indiana. If you were ever in there, you know what I mean,if you weren't, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I worked there when the name was Newport Chemical Depot 2006-2009. Some monsters viewed and killed there. One of the coworkers, on my last hunt there, called me as I left, stating he just shot a buck that was with 3 or 4 others but he thought it was the biggest one. After seeing it I said Mike if there was anyway the others were close that was a heck of a herd. See if I can find the pic
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Post by astronankin on Oct 11, 2023 16:30:12 GMT -5
Back in the "glory years" I personally saw several unbelievable bucks inside the Army Ammunition Plant in Newport Indiana. If you were ever in there, you know what I mean,if you weren't, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I worked there when the name was Newport Chemical Depot 2006-2009. Some monsters viewed and killed there. One of the coworkers, on my last hunt there, called me as I left, stating he just shot a buck that was with 3 or 4 others but he thought it was the biggest one. After seeing it I said Mike if there was anyway the others were close that was a heck of a herd. See if I can find the pic That would have had to be a big one!
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Post by astronankin on Oct 11, 2023 16:31:43 GMT -5
I used to carry a digital camera with me during the rut when I was on night shift. I got some good pictures of bucks on the drive home. This buck was across the road from our property. It's the biggest I've ever seen and I'm glad I got some pictures of it. I never heard of anyone killing a buck this size in the area. It was very symmetrical and had very long tines. I'm guessing it would have scored pretty high. That is a true giant! Probably would be a deer that easily gets into Boone and Crockett.
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Post by bowonlykindofguy1 on Oct 11, 2023 16:51:58 GMT -5
A few years back I was hunting an absolute giant. Another fella killed it with a gun. Think it scored 275 non typical.
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Post by duff on Oct 11, 2023 16:53:20 GMT -5
I worked there when the name was Newport Chemical Depot 2006-2009. Some monsters viewed and killed there. One of the coworkers, on my last hunt there, called me as I left, stating he just shot a buck that was with 3 or 4 others but he thought it was the biggest one. After seeing it I said Mike if there was anyway the others were close that was a heck of a herd. See if I can find the pic That would have had to be a big one! Here it is.
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Post by greghopper on Oct 11, 2023 17:08:39 GMT -5
A few years back I was hunting an absolute giant. Another fella killed it with a gun. Think it scored 275 non typical. Ouch
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Post by greghopper on Oct 11, 2023 17:28:16 GMT -5
2003 or 04 was going though front gate a JPG and not far past the lake on left I seen one of Biggest bucks I ever seen alive standing along the wood lot along the rows of trees midday. In 2006 the week before gun season opened I seen almost the same size deer with a doe that I shot the Monday after gun opener and he took a ride home in a truck.I see some nice ones spot lightning also over the years
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Post by bill9068 on Oct 11, 2023 17:49:44 GMT -5
I’ve seen big deer where I hunt in the river bottoms. Saw one a few years back that I couldn’t get a bow shot on and never saw him again. I do not have any cameras at this woods because I want to be surprised. Biggest one I’ve killed was scored by my taxidermist at 186 and some change.
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Post by genesis273 on Oct 11, 2023 18:32:26 GMT -5
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Post by genesis273 on Oct 11, 2023 18:33:11 GMT -5
After reviewing the other post, I may have misunderstood.... . . . . .😂🤣😅
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Post by astronankin on Oct 11, 2023 19:23:11 GMT -5
I'll show you in this order, widest, most mass and tallest. 😅
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Post by astronankin on Oct 11, 2023 19:23:59 GMT -5
I’ve seen big deer where I hunt in the river bottoms. Saw one a few years back that I couldn’t get a bow shot on and never saw him again. I do not have any cameras at this woods because I want to be surprised. Biggest one I’ve killed was scored by my taxidermist at 186 and some change. That's a pretty big deer by today's standards for most hunters.
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Post by astronankin on Oct 11, 2023 19:26:30 GMT -5
That would have had to be a big one! Here it is. Super nice! The way those things look is crazy! Speaking of giant non-typicals I got to see a huge rack from an Illinois hunter at the taxidermist today. Guy thinks it may be an Illinois crossbow record.
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Post by genesis273 on Oct 11, 2023 20:28:42 GMT -5
Obviously I have seen some HIGE deer on the ol boob tube and in magazines.
However, the largest deer I had ever seen in person while hunting was back in 2001. I was new to archery hunting. I was hunting the very first permission piece I had ever obtained. It was a mere 7 acres but, it was the right 7 acres. On an aerial map, it was the perfect funnel along a ditch and ag field.
This is the spot I killed my first deer ever back in 1999.
I built a blind out of some scrape metal. And was sitting in the blind sometime before firearm season. I had my PSE Maurader that I had just purchased at Cabela's. ($179.00 for the ready-to- shoot package). I had forgotten my release that night. I figured since I only had a couple of hours to hunt, I would just sit and see what happens. A buck came walking through with only, maybe, 45 minutes of legal light. He was tall, not real wide, but had trash on each one of his 8 tines. His brows were thick, bladed and tall. I decided to shoot at him just using my fingers in the absence of my release. (Huge mistake and poor ethical decision). I shot in front of the deer. He didn't really even act like he knew what happened. He walked off cautiously with his tail tucked.
That was the biggest buck I had ever seen, live and on the hoof.
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