Grandpa had a bad day

[fishnguy]

The beginning of this story is in this thread. But I will post the last applicable paragraph here as well.

Today, I got in around 13:30. I had no plan and had no clue what I was going to do. And I did just that: spent some time in one spot, then in the other, then in the other. Saw and heard nothing. No fresh tracks today either, not where i was looking for them anyway. The only fresh tracks were by the road. With about an hour left, I decided to move closer to the road and just spend the remaining hour there. Same thing - nothing. I checked the time and I had 15 minutes left before lights out. I decided to make a quick run to the small cut block not too far for the last look of the season and then go home. That cut block is usually very boring and there is never deer sing there. The deer tends to stay in the bush and avoids it. So I started moving fairly quickly through the snow. I thought if I moved fast, I might have 5 minutes or so to watch the cut block before packing it in. About 5 minutes later, I was almost at the road and then...

And then I decided to slow down. There was no reason to rush, I thought. Five minutes would not give me what I was looking for and at the cut block at that. So I did slow down, walking to the road slowly. Wind was blowing in my back at about 45-degree angle and up the hill. Just before the road and still in thick brush, I stopped and looked around. On the other side of the road and out of the bush I see a deer, which I thought was a doe at first. Just standing there looking straight at me. No chance it could see me through the thick stuff. I looked at it through the binoculars and saw a rack. A nice and very dark rack. Not large, but with a lot of character. A true bush buck, whose clock must have been off by about 5-10 minutes and he thought the season was already over. I decided to take him, even though I told myself earlier in November that I will only shoot the one I was looking for or toss the tag. I raised the gun up and put him in my scope. Shot fired and he runs. Just took off with no sign of being hit. I knew he was though.

I came out of the brush, onto the road and went to the spot he took off from. One drop of blood. Then I see another not far from there and then some splatter further out. I followed the blood and just behind the hill, about 60 yards from where he took the bullet, there he was, lying on his side.



The bullet (Hornady American Whitetail 150 gr) went through his heart and out on the other side, going right through a rib. Unfortunately, it touched a bit of his right shoulder on the way out. Luckily, just the meat, so not much will be wasted.



The strange things:
1. He is at least 1.5 feet shorter than the young (2.5-3.5 years old) whitetail I shot last year. He is not tiny, but definitely small. No wonder I thought he was a doe at first.
2. He had no stink. And I mean nothing at all. He smelled like the cow elk I shot earlier this season. Any thoughts why? Too old to bother about rut, if it even exists?
3. One can see he is old, but his rack has no mass as you can see. This might not be strange at all, but all the old bucks/sheds I saw had quite some mass to them.
4. His skin was pretty tightly attached. Definitely quite a bit tighter than usually on a deer.

At the end of the day, I am happy I decided to take him. Just hope the meat is fine

(I don't know what is wrong with this image, but the hosting site keeps turning it around on its own)




Lastly, I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the members who commented on my previous thread(s) with a word or a few of advice. Thank you! This one more dumb luck than anything. Must be the lucky gonch

[58thecat]

Your gonch stunk up the bush masking your scent....he came because you smell like a doe!


Awesome buck, just being out there was the key timeout success, congrats!

[Passthru]

The deer gods must favour you. That is one great buck. Congrats. 5 min left, down to the wire. Can't believe it. Read your last post and thought you were done like dinner.

[Newview01]

Come to think of it, the tiny buck I shot had no stink either. Strange.

[Howard Hutchinson]

Very nice Deer. Congrats on getting this fellow before the sun set on your season.

Like other have stated before, I too really like the dark horns..Excellent find and good shooting

[Wisebuck]

You got one heck of an area there. Lucky cuss. Congrats. I’m envious. 😳😎
Did you get a photo of his tarnsel glands? Were they dark and stained?

[nube]

Big deer. Should be well over 170 "

[3blade]

Awesome story and pics. Love it when hard work pays off, even if it wasn't the target buck that's a great deer. Congrats!

[walking buffalo]

Alright Artie!


You put the time in, didn't give up and wore the lucky gonch.

That's the best plan for success.

He's a beauty!

[sharpstick]

Congrats on a very fine buck. If you settled for this guy, I would love to see the one you were after. I love his character and dark horns. Enjoy the many meals from him.

Cheers,
SS

[Wolftrapper]

Awesome Buck and story!

[husky7mm]

Beautiful deer, thanks for sharing. Congrates

[Zuludog]

Great buck! Way to get it done, at the last minute.

[Desert Eagle]

As for the skin being attached more firmly than most deer, we have noticed a few times bucks close to the end of season that spent all that time chasing does have burnt all their fat off and seems like the hide is more firmly attached. Not sure if that is the case here, just what we saw in the past

[Fox red lab]

Great buck. Goes to show you never give up.

[Sooner]

Nice, love the rack. His face looks old(not the skinned pics lol). Congrats

[Slicktricker]

Nice buck! Bigger then the one you were after congrats

[marlin1]

nice buck

[DRhunter]

Great buck, congrats


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vacation]

I was hoping you would get one. Good work, beauty Buck!

[Don K]

Good looking deer!

[fishnguy]

Thank you for the comments, guys!

The third mystery, the antlers having no weight, is solved. The grandpa turned out to be a "youngster", more or less. After looking at his teeth, I figured he is 4.5 years old, 5.5 tops?



Tells you to never judge a deer's age just by looking at him. Though this guy did actually have some "grey hair". And he just looked old overall. Probably just my perception though and little experience.

For some reason, knowing now that he is not as old as I though he was, makes me less happy. Still happy though. Most importantly, the meat should be better

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Your gonch stunk up the bush masking your scent....he came because you smell like a doe!

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

You put the time in, didn't give up and wore the lucky gonch.

Now debating whether to throw the gonch to the laundry or vacuum seal it until next season

Originally Posted by Passthru

The deer gods must favour you. That is one great buck. Congrats. 5 min left, down to the wire. Can't believe it. Read your last post and thought you were done like dinner.

Indeed. They must have put him there at that moment, about 40 yards off the road, maybe 90-100 yards from me and some 300 yards from where I parked the vehicle. I guess they did not want me packing a larger deer out of thick bush and quite some distance in the dark

Originally Posted by Wisebuck

You got one heck of an area there. Lucky cuss. Congrats. I’m envious. 😳😎
Did you get a photo of his tarnsel glands? Were they dark and stained?

Great area, no complaints. Thick bush though and very hard to find deer, whitetail that is. Also the road hunters keep them in the thickest stuff during the season, especially late season.

Tarnsels were clean, hair almost clean. Don't know why.

Originally Posted by sharpstick

Congrats on a very fine buck. If you settled for this guy, I would love to see the one you were after. I love his character and dark horns. Enjoy the many meals from him.

Cheers,
SS

This was the deer I was after.

Originally Posted by Desert Eagle

As for the skin being attached more firmly than most deer, we have noticed a few times bucks close to the end of season that spent all that time chasing does have burnt all their fat off and seems like the hide is more firmly attached. Not sure if that is the case here, just what we saw in the past

Could be. Though he did have a fair amount of fat.

Originally Posted by Sooner

Nice, love the rack. His face looks old(not the skinned pics lol). Congrats

He looked very old to me in his face. When I was looking at him through the binos, I was thinking that that deer has some age on him. Turns out not so much since teeth can't lie, I don't think.

Originally Posted by nube

Big deer. Should be well over 170 "

Originally Posted by Slicktricker

Nice buck! Bigger then the one you were after congrats

I don't think he is bigger than the one I was after. It's hard to say because I have never seen the other one in real life or as close as this one, lol. He might measure high due to all the ends on the rack. He would probably have quite a set on his head in the next couple of years had the luck been on his side and not mine. By no means I can complain though, he is a great deer and things could not have worked out any better, really. Just wish I took a few more photos of him. I didn't because of the rush, trying to load him up before dark.





P.S. Can anyone suggest how to remove the skin around the antlers' bases? This is the third head I skinned and still can't figure it out

[270man]

If that buck is taken in the last five minutes of the last day of the season
how do you figure that grandpa had a bad day? I'm assuming that the OP
is the grandpa, of course.

270man

[fishnguy]

I am a youngster, just like the buck turned out to be. I was referring to the deer in the thread title, calling him a grandpa, since I thought he was an old deer and had no doubt in my mind about it until I looked at this teeth. In my mind, no matter how amazing your day was, but if at the end of it you end up getting shot through the heart, it isn't such a great day

[Glenn D]

He is a great buck , last day of season or the first. Congrats , what a wat to end the year.

[Lefty-Canuck]

To remove the skin around the bases cut from the skull up towards the peticle, make a "tab" and pull the skin away as you work the tip of your blade along the base.

LC

[fishnguy]

^ Thank you! I will try later in the day

It has been mentioned to me by a kind member that some might be concerned about the shot taken over a road. To clarify, the "road" is not really a road and I should have put it in quotes to begin with. It is a way to get in and maintained by the hunters driving it... by driving it, lol. Those who use it, call it a road though

[BorealBucks]

"I looked at it through the binoculars and saw a rack. A nice and very dark rack. Not large"

Not large?, if i could shoot a buck that size id be extremely happy, he's huge.

[Diesel_wiesel]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

P.S. Can anyone suggest how to remove the skin around the antlers' bases? This is the third head I skinned and still can't figure it out

nice buck
as for yer question
I always use a dull wide flat screwdriver, and gently pry the hide away from around the antlers and over its skull plate
hope that helps you for the next one

[Bub]

Really cool buck and well done. I have yet to take a buck on the last day of a season, not that it matters. No whitetail for me this year, couldn’t find anything I would want to take and haven’t actually seen much at all.

P. S. I don’t think he will measure 170 or close to it. If you look at how his antlers relate to the skull, it is obvious he is a relatively small guy. The other buck is definitely bigger, in my opinion; I have been wrong in the past though and talking measurements just from the photos is a very difficult thing. The buck you were looking for originally, for example, is probably smaller in real life than he seems to be in the last photo you posted. This is due to the fact that that night photo was taken in motion: the deer was moving his head down, which can be seen from the weird shape of his right ear. The first three photos you posted in that thread are more appropriate for estimating a more realistic score. I still say I won’t be surprised if he measures more than 170.

Now, having said all that, the score does not really matter and definitely does not matter in this case. Tons of character and the dark, very dark, colour speak volumes.

Edit: I guess I should have written all this measurement stuff about the other deer in that other thread. Sorry. Maybe I will copy it there when I am not on my phone.