Monday morning before shooting light I had two bucks came in and started munching chum corn. When the feeder went off they bolted but 5 minutes later deer began filtering in and with them….K9. This is my target buck for the season.

Let me explain something here. You will note in the pictures that with kickers this buck is a “Texas” 12 point but I’ve known this buck for three years. The first year I saw him he was a beautiful racked 9 point but was simply too young to shoot so he was named the “Not Yet 9”. Last year he added a kicker off of his left G2 and we changed his name to the “Kicker 9. He got a pass last year too even though it was tough not hitting the release. Well this year he added a kicker off his left 3 and added a short G4 on that left side…so we just shortened it to K9 instead of coming up with a whole new name….ok I’m crazy. Back to the hunt....

K9 jumped into the feeder pen thus eliminating any shot thru the cattle panels around the feeder on this set. For the next 23 minutes I had to sit while multiple bucks were all around me and on the chum line but K9 held his place inside the pen. Finally he jumped out of the pen but did not offer an immediate shot instead going to the front of the pen. He made his way back to the corner of pen nearest me but was facing me dead on when I heard “purrrrr putt….purrrrrr putt” as five big gobblers moved in. I’m thinking this is going to totally screw me as turkeys always bust me at this set. Instead it worked to my advantage as after a few minutes one of the gobblers must have made me out and started putting loudly but he was 65 yards up the hill from my stand. At that moment all the bucks in the area looked up at this noisy gobbler and K9 offered me a 23 yard quartering away shot. Ten seconds later I sent a Grim Reaper on a double lung mission. Complete pass thru and one of the reddest arrow I’ve ever had. At 7:46 AM I sent the text to my hunting buddy Tim, that “K9 stuck!” 45 minutes later Tim showed up. Now after being calm, cool and in absolute total “Kill Mode” this entire episode, I lost it. I couldn’t even talk. We went to the arrow where there were blood splatters around and started down the trail he had taken and I couldn’t believe it! The blood trail was extremely thin with only a couple of drops every 10-15 yards. Totally unlike the Ketchup bottle blood trails the Grim Reapers usually give me. We followed the trail around a stand of live oaks and Tim said “I bet he took a left through these”…I look to the left and see main beam sticking up out of the broom weed. Three minute and about 65 yards from the feeder there he lay! Amazing hunt and my best bow buck to date.

Huge thanks to Tim for helping me out both physically and mentally during the recovery! Now the beer will be colder...the food will taste better...and sleeping in will always be an option!

THE RECOVERY

Great story and buck, congrats on the kill

Nice!

Nice Buck!!

Awesome!

Awesome deer man, I bet you are on cloud 9!

Very much so! Still very hard to concentrate here at work

Thanks!

Great Buck...

Dangggg good shot too

That is a hell of a big buck

CONGRATS!

YEA BUDDY ! That's a good un !!!

Your patience paid off. Great buck! A kill like that makes it a lot easier to let the big ones fully mature.

This is pretty cool. From my stabalizer mounted video and I had to blow it up quite a bit but the first picture is about 20 seconds from the moment of truth and the second is literally 1 second before I hit the release. Corner of the pen is 26 yards from my tree.

Awesome buck! Thanks for sharing......great job of keeping your cool until he presented the shot. I'm afraid he would have noticed the leaves shaking around me.

Good write up and great shootin!!

Awesome buck!!

awesome deer buddy, congrats, the first pic of u with it is priceless...lol

That first pic is great. Nice looking harvest.

Great buck. Its nice when you are on a place when everyone is on the same management plan.

Nice deer.

Super buck!

Great buck!

Congrats on a great buck and write up!