The paratroop kid was home on leave last Christmas time last year and shot a nice WTD buck with his uncle's muzzle loader. He decided to get a shoulder mount of it so we dropped it off at a nearby small town taxidermy place before he left last year and the mount was ready in October. I was rather stunned at the price, $750 + tax, but the market is what the market will bear. The wife doesn't like any taxidermy in the living areas of the house but she never gets down in the "basement" family room all that much so I thought I'd take down some outdoor sport art and hang the kid's deer there. I tried hanging it soon after I picked it up but I wasn't overly impressed with the hanger there that was holding up the artwork so I propped the buck mount up against the wall and it stayed there until he got home this morning. He did something to make the hanger a bit more secure in the sheet rock and got the buck up, although we'll probably put it in his bedroom before he leaves again before New Years, maybe anchor the nail into a stud behind the sheet rock.

For those of you that roll decent bucks about every year, this deer may not be that impressive, I think he measured it last year and the raw score was in the low 120s but its his nicest so far and actually better than any I've taken. What I think is cool is the story behind the hunt.

Paratroop kid never gave up his South Dakota residency but most big game seasons are closed when he gets back for leave around Christmas so two years ago, he just picked up a anterless deer muzzle loader tag. He did bag some venison with that tag, nearly hip shooting a decent fawn at about 5+ yards coming out of some standing corn (long story bit let's just say that the organic farmer-hoarder I know has some "interesting" management issues), and our deer fawns are heavier than say east Texas fawns in December but ok, done that, let's move on. The paratroop kid was a bit miffed that he couldn't get an any deer muzzle loader tag in December so he wrote to Gov. Noem's office and her staff obviously passed it on to SD GF&P because he got a letter sometime in the later this spring informing him that active military do have some special options. One of those is to pick up a "military" muzzle loader tag that would allow him to take any deer.

Fast forward to about this time last year and I think it was his second (or maybe third) evening out (Dec 26) and he texts me that he sees deer moving down the east side of this particular field from "the refuge" property (I won't go into any details) that is across the road on the other end of this field. He says he thinks he sees a buck in with about half a dozen other deer. He was set up facing east on the other side of this little patch of trees where he had shot the fawn (on the west side of the patch) in 2022. I had about a quarter mile strip of a specialty purple-black corn used for meal and other things that I had partnered with the farmer to plant on the east side of that field and I had been hand picking it all fall (seven rows wide by about 400 yards long). I had not gotten up to the north end of this little corn strip yet and the deer were enjoying eating the still standing ears there.

The distance from where the kid was sitting to the fence line was about 125+ yards and SD muzzle loader rules are open sites only and the light was fading fast but the deer,with this now larger looking buck, were not quite at a straight line distance but were in the purple corn. The kid is looking at his watch and trying to figure out when it would be "now or never". With less than 5 minutes of legal shooting time left, he decides to take the shot. Maybe Jesus helped guide the bullet but the slug took the buck at a slight angle, just in front of one shoulder and exiting behind the back shoulder. The buck gets over the nearby fence but piles up about 10 yards into the adjacent landowner's field. Paratroop kid finds the downed deer as it is now full dark, leaves the muzzleloader on his side of the fence, and pulls the animal under the fence and field dresses it.

He calls me and I head up there with my car (I can't remember why I just didn't give him the vehicle to use but I had dropped him off). There hadn't been a lot of snow by then in 2023/24 winter but the farm field trail was icy and it had a bit of down hill slope so it was a bit iffy getting close with my old Ford Freestyle. We still ended up with about a 300 yard drag of the critter down to where I had gotten my car and we did some damage to the hide behind one shoulder but I thought it was far enough back that it wouldn't effect a shoulder mount. I, as an "old" man, was a pretty glad the drag wasn't any further but the kid's adrenaline was infectious that evening. Anyway, he got a trophy and some good venison and I got to live it with him and get a little pay back on the purple corn munchers. Probably a story not to be repeated anytime soon...

Very nice looking buck, congrats to him.

Congratulations a very fine buck.

Good story! Thanks for sharing that!

Nice mount and nice buck!

Thanks gentlemen!!

We'll see what he can do this leave. I need some more deer sticks to munch on



Next year, I might have to take up that muzzle loader thingy, can't get an any deer regular rifle tag around here without about 4 or 5 years of preference points.

Besides, I might have a strip of some big red corn to protect

very nice

I like to find a stud and put a screw in with a head that will fit the hole and slot in the back of my one mount

my first buck , my dad had mounted , a good size deer for where we hunt but not huge compared to what some here post.

it is all about the memory and the mount helps tell the story

nice buck , great story

Tltr but nice mount……

Your son can likely hunt and fish without a license in your state as long as he has his leave papers with him. He probably won't have to buy tags either. Your local game warden should be able to tell him for sure. I hope you have a great visit and get to spend some quality time in the field together.

Keith

Excellent write-up and great story. Memories will be sparked each time either of you look at that mount.

And like GCP said, definitely find a stud to screw/nail into. I wouldn't trust hanging that mount on a drywall/hollow wall anchor.

Very nice!