My 2016 buck

[nkhrfh]

Good job Corey. Catch up when you are back.

 

[phylodog]

My hunting partner was able to get a beautiful buck on the ground yesterday. A very gracious family we have come to know in recent years allowed us to come and hunt their property. We had been hunting our farm for 14 days straight and aside from my buck, we had not had any opportunities at good deer. The few decent deer we had been seeing on camera had gone missing and we were getting frustrated. The pressure of needing footage for the show was mounting.

We went out Monday afternoon and met with the owner who showed us the areas we could hunt. Based off of the deer activity he had been seeing we put up a stand set and backed out. We were up at 3:30am yesterday to get to the new property before daylight. Our walk in went very well and we got into the stands with very little sound. Once daylight started to break we were surrounded by deer all morning and the rut was obviously in full swing. I don't think we went more than 15 minutes without seeing deer and by 11:00am we had seen 7 different bucks, it seemed each one was bigger than the last. We were hoping for a bow kill but brought the rifle just in case. Just after 11:00am we heard a buck roar which is something I had not heard before, my first thought was that we had a yeti close by. The roar was followed by loud grunting which seemed to be headed our way. Moments later we started to catch glimpses of this guy through the heavy cover. He came walking in at 40 yards to our stand but having not trimmed any shooting lanes this was just outside of where my partner could get a clean bow shot.

My partner stopped him and unfortunately he chose to stop where there was a tree blocking the camera. After several seconds the buck started walking and my partner got him stopped again where I had a good view with the camera. My partner had grabbed the rifle and once I told him I was good to go he put a 165gr .308 round exactly where it needed to go. The buck ran about 50 yards into some thick cover and we heard him go down.

We put a tape to him this morning and he grossed 155" with 3" of deductions for a 152" net. Not bad at all for an 8 point and this was by far the largest bodied buck I have ever seen. I have no doubts after dragging him up a slight incline for 60 yards that he was 300lbs on the hoof. Incredible deer for my partner and an excellent way to wrap up our Indiana season. Hopefully our footage will be good enough that we will be featured on the 2017 season of Hit Squad Outdoors with Tim Sylvia which airs on The Pursuit Channel. If you're on Facebook, head over and give the show a like if you wouldn't mind. It helps to keep us in business.

 

[oldpink]

Wow, what a monster!
His tines are like damn spears.

 

[lovetheoutdoors]

Wow congrats. Wonder how many crops he ate to get that big lol

 

[Leadeye]

Excellent animals, congratulations!

 

[roscott]

The neck on that thing is unreal! Great buck. What part of Indiana are you hunting?

 

[phylodog]

Our farm is in Fountain County, the buck my partner took was 45 minutes from us, promised I wouldn't mention a specific location.

 

[roscott]

Our farm is in Fountain County, the buck my partner took was 45 minutes from us, promised I wouldn't mention a specific location.

Well dang! We're hunting neighbors. We are hunting warren county. Lots of nice bucks in that part of the state.

 

[Jtrain]

Congrats to both of you guys, both great bucks! I live in fountain county also, does it seem to you like the deer herd is smaller to you this yr or is it just me?

 

[lstout]

I heard this week that 120k deer are harvested in Indiana each year

 

[phylodog]

Congrats to both of you guys, both great bucks! I live in fountain county also, does it seem to you like the deer herd is smaller to you this yr or is it just me?

Absolutely. We haven't killed a doe on our place in six years and have only killed four bucks in the last four years but the herd is shrinking. Not only do we have fewer deer but this year we had fewer decent bucks on the farm as well. I suspect next year will be miserable for mature bucks. I have a buddy with a processing business and the sheer number of good bucks brought in last weekend was staggering.

 

[mom45]

I heard this week that 120k deer are harvested in Indiana each year

Scroll down to "deer management" and you will see the annual harvest reports. 74,320 already this season.

DNR: Indiana Deer hunting, biology and management

 

[Cameramonkey]

Beautiful buck, questionable looking hunter.

Congrats!

Oh, and I came in here because I kept misreading the title as "my 2016 BuIck". Thought you might have become an old person and settled into a nice comfortable riding sedan.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Nice work! I know you've put in a ton of effort, so nice to see that pay off!