I wasn’t trying to brag, it’s just the hunt process of watching and pursuing that one deer over the last three years is what made it so special to me. That’s my “once in a lifetime” buck I’m sure. Every once in a while you come across one with potential and it’s just a pray he makes it kind of deal. This one just happened to stick around.
We had a really nice deer about 5yrs ago that we even made a pact with the hunters next to us to let go. After 2 seasons near 150” he disappeared. They swore they didn’t shoot and we knew we didn’t. That deer was killed 3 years later 4 miles due South as the crow flies at over 200”. We did some investigating and found the property that deer went to and was watched by that landowner and then when it left his property chasing a doe during the rut it was killed. That guy had a sanctuary set up that he didn’t hunt or set foot in on his property (a safe place for deer, lol) and that’s where he’d taken up residence.
The actual guy that shot the deer was across the road and had been getting that deers pics only at night. The rut killed that deer. He chased a doe that went across the highway onto this guys property during daylight and he shot it.
We shared early pics with the lucky hunter and the landowner where the buck actually lived gave the guy a shed from the previous year. It appears 6.5 is our magical age.