Biggest buck to date

nhn2a

Ten Pointer
Its been a crazy weekend so I'm just now getting around to posting this but I wanted to post a few more photos and a brief story about my buck from Friday. He is by far the largest whitetail I have ever harvested.

I was hunting at my tree farm in Harnett County. Its 30 acres so not big by any measure but its long and narrow coming in at almost 3/4 of a mile long and only 50-75yrds wide in some spots. However with the river running along my lengthwise boundary and thick swamp areas on the other side it sees a lot of deer cross back and forth over it. This year I decided to hunt it a little differently. In years past we would just jump around on either end based on the wind direction and would normally harvest several does and some small bucks but nothing of any real size. This year we decided to stop hunting the back half of the property at all until the rut kicked in as we had seen some larger bucks on camera before season.

Well Friday morning my hunting buddy and I were supposed to go in there and hunt. We watched the weather and this was gonna be the first time it dropped into the 20s and we knew the rut was on having seen several bucks chasing. I had just harvested a nice tall narrow 8pt the day prior so I had planned to sit my hunting buddy in my favorite spot in hopes he would get him one. I wake up like usual and I text him to make sure hes up. He calls me and gives me several weak excuses why hes not going this morning saying he woke up late, got to let the dogs out, his throat is itchy, etc, etc and so it looks like I'm on my own. I go in there and sit on the side of a hill facing a thicket with a creek running through it. This area being typical swamp land is pretty open at ground level but if you get up even 10ft you lose visibility pretty quickly so I opt to sit in a turkey chair on the ground so I can see under it and I can use my knee as a rest. Even so I can really only see about 60yrds in any direction. Below is a photo from my seat.

PXL_20221114_145411226.PANO.jpg

I'm expecting later morning activity based on all the moon phase predictions and because the past several hunts I had been seeing deer move closer to 8:30 - 9:30. Sure enough about 9am I have 4 does come from my right. They stay around for about 15min before heading off. Then about 9:15 two does come from the hilltop behind me and walk by on my left side. This startled me as in all the years I've hunted there I've never had one approach from that side and my wind is blowing straight up the hill behind me. One of the does is younger and is prancing around the thicket making all kinds of noise which is fun to watch and I think it helped the other does remain a little calmer. Then I hear a stick snap behind me. It sounded so close I was half expecting to see a deer head come over my shoulder. I slowly turn enough to see a doe standing about 30yrds up hill of me which is bad because again thats where the wind is blowing. She walks by unconcerned. Then another doe walks by, then another doe, then another doe. They're following the hillside in single file line walking by. I keep watching and then he steps out following the line. I can immediately tell he is large both in body and antlers but cant get a good look to tell exactly how big. I only had a few seconds as he was walking by. I bleated to try to stop him and he kept walking. I grunted ... he kept walking. Finally I cleared my throat so I could get louder and he stopped perfectly in a gap. I put the cross hairs on him and BAAM. He bolted forward without really reacting, jumped across the creek, and started running up along the creek. I could barely see him but it looked like he had stopped so I quickly chambered another round and eased down the hill to the creek so I could try and get another shot. Right as I got him in my crosshairs he lost his balance and fell over on his side thrashing around. Relieved, I decide to give him some time so I ease back up in the chair and break the thermos out to have a cup of coffee. I was shaking so bad from the cold and adrenaline that I was spilling it all over myself. After about 20min I decide to ease up the creek and get my first good look at him.

I never imagined he was as big as he was when I shot which probably helped with my nerves. Unfortunately all the fun stopped once I got the photos and texts out of the way. I called my hunting buddy (the one who didnt come out) as I knew I was gonna need some help getting him out. He says hes on the way but man you can tell hes kicking himself for not going. I map out our path to get him out and and its just shy of 300yrds up hill, through the ticket and over a couple down trees but thats the only way to get him out. We take it slow and finally break free to an open field where we can pull the truck up. It takes everything we have to get him in the truck. I should have mentioned I'm 38 and my hunting buddy is 67. I'm also in typical dad bod whitetail hunter shape so I feel like I'm gonna die when we get out of the woods. He ended up weighing 182lbs.


PXL_20221118_144259924.MP.jpgPXL_20221118_145223976.MP.jpg14pt.jpg
 

jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Nice Harnett county buck.
There are some big ones over there close to you that get killed every year by an older gentleman I know. He gets at least 1 and his place is only a few miles from you as the crow flies.
 
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oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Gotta love it when a plan comes together.
Many are learning the merits of the turkey chair in the deer woods.
Congratulations on a great deer.
 

Ambush

Twelve Pointer
Its been a crazy weekend so I'm just now getting around to posting this but I wanted to post a few more photos and a brief story about my buck from Friday. He is by far the largest whitetail I have ever harvested.

I was hunting at my tree farm in Harnett County. Its 30 acres so not big by any measure but its long and narrow coming in at almost 3/4 of a mile long and only 50-75yrds wide in some spots. However with the river running along my lengthwise boundary and thick swamp areas on the other side it sees a lot of deer cross back and forth over it. This year I decided to hunt it a little differently. In years past we would just jump around on either end based on the wind direction and would normally harvest several does and some small bucks but nothing of any real size. This year we decided to stop hunting the back half of the property at all until the rut kicked in as we had seen some larger bucks on camera before season.

Well Friday morning my hunting buddy and I were supposed to go in there and hunt. We watched the weather and this was gonna be the first time it dropped into the 20s and we knew the rut was on having seen several bucks chasing. I had just harvested a nice tall narrow 8pt the day prior so I had planned to sit my hunting buddy in my favorite spot in hopes he would get him one. I wake up like usual and I text him to make sure hes up. He calls me and gives me several weak excuses why hes not going this morning saying he woke up late, got to let the dogs out, his throat is itchy, etc, etc and so it looks like I'm on my own. I go in there and sit on the side of a hill facing a thicket with a creek running through it. This area being typical swamp land is pretty open at ground level but if you get up even 10ft you lose visibility pretty quickly so I opt to sit in a turkey chair on the ground so I can see under it and I can use my knee as a rest. Even so I can really only see about 60yrds in any direction. Below is a photo from my seat.

View attachment 104513

I'm expecting later morning activity based on all the moon phase predictions and because the past several hunts I had been seeing deer move closer to 8:30 - 9:30. Sure enough about 9am I have 4 does come from my right. They stay around for about 15min before heading off. Then about 9:15 two does come from the hilltop behind me and walk by on my left side. This startled me as in all the years I've hunted there I've never had one approach from that side and my wind is blowing straight up the hill behind me. One of the does is younger and is prancing around the thicket making all kinds of noise which is fun to watch and I think it helped the other does remain a little calmer. Then I hear a stick snap behind me. It sounded so close I was half expecting to see a deer head come over my shoulder. I slowly turn enough to see a doe standing about 30yrds up hill of me which is bad because again thats where the wind is blowing. She walks by unconcerned. Then another doe walks by, then another doe, then another doe. They're following the hillside in single file line walking by. I keep watching and then he steps out following the line. I can immediately tell he is large both in body and antlers but cant get a good look to tell exactly how big. I only had a few seconds as he was walking by. I bleated to try to stop him and he kept walking. I grunted ... he kept walking. Finally I cleared my throat so I could get louder and he stopped perfectly in a gap. I put the cross hairs on him and BAAM. He bolted forward without really reacting, jumped across the creek, and started running up along the creek. I could barely see him but it looked like he had stopped so I quickly chambered another round and eased down the hill to the creek so I could try and get another shot. Right as I got him in my crosshairs he lost his balance and fell over on his side thrashing around. Relieved, I decide to give him some time so I ease back up in the chair and break the thermos out to have a cup of coffee. I was shaking so bad from the cold and adrenaline that I was spilling it all over myself. After about 20min I decide to ease up the creek and get my first good look at him.

I never imagined he was as big as he was when I shot which probably helped with my nerves. Unfortunately all the fun stopped once I got the photos and texts out of the way. I called my hunting buddy (the one who didnt come out) as I knew I was gonna need some help getting him out. He says hes on the way but man you can tell hes kicking himself for not going. I map out our path to get him out and and its just shy of 300yrds up hill, through the ticket and over a couple down trees but thats the only way to get him out. We take it slow and finally break free to an open field where we can pull the truck up. It takes everything we have to get him in the truck. I should have mentioned I'm 38 and my hunting buddy is 67. I'm also in typical dad bod whitetail hunter shape so I feel like I'm gonna die when we get out of the woods. He ended up weighing 182lbs.


View attachment 104509View attachment 104510View attachment 104511
Great buck and story…congrats
 

luckybuck

Old Mossy Horns
Its been a crazy weekend so I'm just now getting around to posting this but I wanted to post a few more photos and a brief story about my buck from Friday. He is by far the largest whitetail I have ever harvested.

I was hunting at my tree farm in Harnett County. Its 30 acres so not big by any measure but its long and narrow coming in at almost 3/4 of a mile long and only 50-75yrds wide in some spots. However with the river running along my lengthwise boundary and thick swamp areas on the other side it sees a lot of deer cross back and forth over it. This year I decided to hunt it a little differently. In years past we would just jump around on either end based on the wind direction and would normally harvest several does and some small bucks but nothing of any real size. This year we decided to stop hunting the back half of the property at all until the rut kicked in as we had seen some larger bucks on camera before season.

Well Friday morning my hunting buddy and I were supposed to go in there and hunt. We watched the weather and this was gonna be the first time it dropped into the 20s and we knew the rut was on having seen several bucks chasing. I had just harvested a nice tall narrow 8pt the day prior so I had planned to sit my hunting buddy in my favorite spot in hopes he would get him one. I wake up like usual and I text him to make sure hes up. He calls me and gives me several weak excuses why hes not going this morning saying he woke up late, got to let the dogs out, his throat is itchy, etc, etc and so it looks like I'm on my own. I go in there and sit on the side of a hill facing a thicket with a creek running through it. This area being typical swamp land is pretty open at ground level but if you get up even 10ft you lose visibility pretty quickly so I opt to sit in a turkey chair on the ground so I can see under it and I can use my knee as a rest. Even so I can really only see about 60yrds in any direction. Below is a photo from my seat.

View attachment 104513

I'm expecting later morning activity based on all the moon phase predictions and because the past several hunts I had been seeing deer move closer to 8:30 - 9:30. Sure enough about 9am I have 4 does come from my right. They stay around for about 15min before heading off. Then about 9:15 two does come from the hilltop behind me and walk by on my left side. This startled me as in all the years I've hunted there I've never had one approach from that side and my wind is blowing straight up the hill behind me. One of the does is younger and is prancing around the thicket making all kinds of noise which is fun to watch and I think it helped the other does remain a little calmer. Then I hear a stick snap behind me. It sounded so close I was half expecting to see a deer head come over my shoulder. I slowly turn enough to see a doe standing about 30yrds up hill of me which is bad because again thats where the wind is blowing. She walks by unconcerned. Then another doe walks by, then another doe, then another doe. They're following the hillside in single file line walking by. I keep watching and then he steps out following the line. I can immediately tell he is large both in body and antlers but cant get a good look to tell exactly how big. I only had a few seconds as he was walking by. I bleated to try to stop him and he kept walking. I grunted ... he kept walking. Finally I cleared my throat so I could get louder and he stopped perfectly in a gap. I put the cross hairs on him and BAAM. He bolted forward without really reacting, jumped across the creek, and started running up along the creek. I could barely see him but it looked like he had stopped so I quickly chambered another round and eased down the hill to the creek so I could try and get another shot. Right as I got him in my crosshairs he lost his balance and fell over on his side thrashing around. Relieved, I decide to give him some time so I ease back up in the chair and break the thermos out to have a cup of coffee. I was shaking so bad from the cold and adrenaline that I was spilling it all over myself. After about 20min I decide to ease up the creek and get my first good look at him.

I never imagined he was as big as he was when I shot which probably helped with my nerves. Unfortunately all the fun stopped once I got the photos and texts out of the way. I called my hunting buddy (the one who didnt come out) as I knew I was gonna need some help getting him out. He says hes on the way but man you can tell hes kicking himself for not going. I map out our path to get him out and and its just shy of 300yrds up hill, through the ticket and over a couple down trees but thats the only way to get him out. We take it slow and finally break free to an open field where we can pull the truck up. It takes everything we have to get him in the truck. I should have mentioned I'm 38 and my hunting buddy is 67. I'm also in typical dad bod whitetail hunter shape so I feel like I'm gonna die when we get out of the woods. He ended up weighing 182lbs.


View attachment 104509View attachment 104510View attachment 104511
Congrats!
 

LR308

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Very nice buck, and good story. You have a pretty good hunting buddy, to come help you recover. I bet he was sick to his stomach when he got the call.
 
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