I first saw him at 400 yards in our cut wheat field. He was giving some stink eye to a little 6 pt near some does. The does jumped the fence to the north and he followed. About 15 minutes later I saw movement in the field of tall weeds that I hunt over at 300+ yards. Then I saw the BIG buck following several does. They were making their way toward me in the weeds that are 4-6 feet tall. The closer they got, the taller the weeds became. All I could see was his antlers and his head as they hung up at about 160 yards. I think the does bedded down. The buck seemed to join them. After another 15-20 minutes I saw does moving again and they started walking away. I knew he would be following shortly. I had already adjusted my scope to zero at 190 yards. Sure enough he followed the does but he paused quartering away so I took aim and fired. It was a CLEAN MISS! They all froze at the report of my .450 Ruger American rifle. I went into reaction mode, I automatically racked in a second round, instantly centered the reticle on his chest and fired again. He took off in a hurry but his tail was down. He circled left and seemed to disappear. I thought he had run into a deep ditch that is in that area. I watched to see if he would come out the other side on the run. He never did. I have him 25 minutes before I went to look. My brother said he never saw him before or after my shot. I first looked in the ditch but found nothing. Hmmm! I thought. So I started searching in the tall grass on a line back toward my tree. I found him expired at 253 yards from my stand from a double lung center mass wound!
My first shot was taken with all kinds of time to “think” and I missed. The second shot was pure instinct, no thinking, just doing, like shooting ducks or pheasants flying fast. I swear I shoot better when I don’t have time to think, just DO, do it NOW.
His left G2 is over 12 inches. I had him on my trail camera one time on November 3rd and I had not seen him at all through archery season and the first days of gun season. I knew was a shooter when I first saw him in the wheat field. It was a very exciting morning!
