Luck! I captured this deer on camera for the first time on 10/30/24 (last week) but he came through around 3am. I assumed he was just passing through searching for hot does but I couldn't wait to hunt the spot hoping he would become a regular. I downloaded and watched the video over and over in awe at the size of him. I shared the video with my brother and a few close friends only. I had several other shooters on the same camera over the past few months but during bow season only young bucks and does showed up for me when I hunted this stand. My first opportunity to hunt this area after getting his picture was the morning of Monday 11/4. It was an uneventful morning just watching squirrels. Debating on where to hunt after lunch I finally decided to hunt the other side of the property in a random spot I've never hunted before and never had a camera. It just seemed like a good place to catch a buck cruising.... close by a big swamp with lots of thick holly trees to give the deer cover. I NEVER hunt a random spot, I always scout hard before spending hours in a stand. I just wanted to try something different. When I stepped off the path I noticed the red oaks were dropping fresh acorns and there was some doe sign around. I found a tree I could get my climber in and was settled in by 1pm. I had a decent view in front of me. I could see about 75 yards in front but behind me and to either side I could only see through a few openings out to about 40 yards at best. The hollys were thick but I know from experience that deer, especially bucks feel comfortable moving about through their cover. A young spike came through behind me around 2:30 feeding on acorns, and then it was quiet again aside from the squirrels. 5pm I hear something to my right, it's not the squirrel I had been hearing all afternoon, it was definitely a deer. I stood up in my stand and rested the gun against the tree, I knew I'd have to be ready to take a quick shot since I only had a few small openings in that direction. The deer stopped a few times but continued my direction. When I got my first glimpse I knew it was a good buck. He turned slightly getting ready to walk out of view. I stopped him with the best bleat I could produce with my mouth. 20 yard and I only had a view of his head and neck. Since he was slightly quartered I put the cross hairs on the base of his neck and pulled the tricker - He folded in his tracks. YES!! I messaged my brother to let him know I shot a nice one, maybe one for the wall. Taking my time I climbed down the tree and walked over to him. My first thought was wow he's massive, and then quickly noticed his exceptionally tall brow tines and that's when I knew it was him. Maybe a half mile away from my camera. After sharing the picture with the other guys in the club I learned that he had been showing up on another camera not far from mine since late summer. He was capturing him shortly after dark. In choosing this random spot I apparently had moved closer to his bedroom.
