Well I've been hunting this deer since 2022. Got several pics in September of that year and after the cow peas and corn disappeared he vanished. No one in the club has a picture since. Fast forward to January of 2023 and he was seen and shot at on Cahaba WMA which boarders our north property line. Guy completely missed and that was that.
2023-2024 season arrives and no one has seen hide nor hair of this deer. I hunt a few other places I know a few decent deer are hanging around in. Strike out on them. Mid December of 2023 I decided to go and look around on the north side of the property and find a few scrape and rubs. I decided to sling a little corn hang a cam and just see what's there. Well December 22 2023 I get an alert as I'm heading to work and there he is. I decided this is where I will hunt for the remainder of the season. It's thick as hell on the wma property and ours is select cut from last year. He was very regular in coming to the corn but only at night. When the rut came in he stayed to his schedule. Jan 12 2024 he showed up in daylight. I said well that's a good sign. Several other daylight pics but as it worked out it was when I was sleeping having to work that night or just got off work and couldn't go hunting. Last week I laid eyes on him for the first time while actually hunting. He never came in to the corn but stayed about 15 yards in the woods and never presented me a shot.
Yesterday morning I got off work at 630, went home took a nap until 1045 and was in the tree by noon. To my surprise they are logging on the wma on our north side about 6-700 yards from my setup. As I'm walking in I bump several deer. Wind is right and they never seemed to really know what I was the just bounced over a knob and I went to my tree. Got all set up in my saddle and was just waiting. At 330ish I hear a commotion to my left. I scan the area for a few minutes and nothing. I look back right to see if I can see anything in the select cut and then back left in just a matter of seconds. Well he was there ,I got my monocular and immediately see it's him. I go to get my gun off the side of the tree and he flings his head up and locks on to me. It takes 3 minutes for me to get the gun up and I feel like I'm having a seizure the whole time I shaking so bad. As soon as he's in the crosshairs and I'm starting to squeeze the trigger he turns to bolt, the shot rang out and I see him dart away the way he came. At this point I have lost all composure and shaking so damn bad I nearly drop the rifle. Somehow I managed to get down and go to where I shot him and I'm beyond excited to see some blood. I knew the shot was high so I started looking for more blood. I walk about 70 yards and all I see is horns on the ground on top of a small rises in the woods. He's done. It was exactly 1 month since I got the first picture of him until I harvested this amazing deer.
Green scored at 148 3/8
2022
2023
After harvest pics BELOW
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