Thanks Guys! My girlfriend Jenny and I first saw the buck in July. I had just returned from hunting in Africa. I saved for 7 years for that trip, and it was great. Anyway, I had just obtained permission for a very very small tract of land. It consisted of nothing more than a hedgerow out in the middle of a cornfield, but near a bunch of CRP. I had not given the place much thought since it was so small. But one day in July, we drove through the area right in the middle of the day, and this buck came out of the corn about 40 to 50 yards in front of the truck. I could not believe my eyes. My girlfriend Jenny, named the buck catfish hunter. Just like the legendary fish from the movie "Grumpy Old Men." The big one that nobody could catch. She named him this because I obsessed over him ever since I saw him. That same day, a buddy and myself hung two trail cameras. We left them alone until Labor day weekend. In a month, we only got 17 pictures, but he was on the fourth one! I then enlisted some help from Don Higgins. We decided on some treestand locations. On October 4, I hung another stand. I went there the next day and hunted it. Just before dark, a nice 2.5 year old 8 pointer came out of the corn, and catfish hunter was bringing up the rear. It took for ever for him to feel safe enough to leave the corn. When he did, he gave me an 8 yard shot, quartering away. I aimed for the offside shoulder. Upon the shot, I heard a loud crack, and became concerned. It all happend so fast that I could not be sure of exact shot placement. He took off out of there like a bat out of hell. Tail between his legs and head low to the ground. I was shaking so bad that it took nearly an hour before I could climb down from my tree. Upon climbing down, I did not find my arrow or even a speck of blood. I decided to wait until morning to track. The next day, I called off work, and so did two of my buddies. I realized then how great my friends really are. It took nearly an hour before we found ANY blood. I felt like I might throw up. Eventually, we found the trail, and it took us 3 hours to go 80 yards, where we lost the trail. I went home and got Snuffer, my blood tracking wiener dog. He took us a little further, but he too lost the trail in the grass that was up to my chin. After that we started grid searching. I took a wild guess and narrowed down 1/3 of the cover where I figured he would most likely go if he were in fact mortally wounded. At 3:30, my buddy Alan found him. He went back to the truck looking for me, but I was still out there. Then I found the deer, but did not know that Alan had already found him. We were both running towards each other screaming and yelling! It was a very emotional time for us. The arrow went in behind the last rib and quartered into the offside shoulder, taking out one lung, and a bunch of arteries. Because there was no exit hole, the bloodtrail was difficult. Words cannot describe how I felt when we found him. There was no ground shrinkage. He got bigger when I walked up to him. His teeth are worn down to nearly nothing. He's an old deer.
Everyone around here knows I've been obsessing over this deer, and I have had a ton of people stop by to take a look, and a bunch of phone calls! It really is just a dream come true for me!
Topic: Catfish hunter. Before & After pics. Big buck (Read 8028 times)
