The rut is just starting to get going here in Michigan. I've been getting more trailcam pictures of bucks cruising and some decent ones starting to hit scrapes really well. I'd gotten pictures of this buck quite a few times and although he had a huge body, I didn't give him much of a thought.
That is, until last night. After getting my climber up the tree and getting all my camera gear setup on the video arm and everything, I sat and cooled down for about 15 minutes before putting on my jacket for the night. I had no more than got my coat on when I spotted him moving through the open woods about 200yds away. I couldn't get a great look at him but I figured he would look nice on camera at least so I grunted at him a couple times and tipped over the can call. Once he finally heard me, he came trotting my way but unfortunately, straight down wind. At this point I could see his body size was huge and it was a bigger buck than I had thought. I had put some doe-in-heat on my boots on the way in and I think he smelled it. He walked in on a string to about 12yds. Trying to get my bow around and videotape at the same time, it actually worked and I was able to get some pretty cool footage.
I'm using Centaur Big Game heads and they worked fantastic as always. I'm a huge fan of large cutting broadheads.
It was a "Ray Charles" blood trail. The buck wasn't my largest with trad gear but sure was gratifying to finally get a really good videotaped hunt to share. It'll be on our show, Michigan Out of Doors here in a couple weeks. Thanks to Chuck for giving me the bug years ago to make the switch to stick and string and building me a killer longbow. Who says pretty bows can't kill deer?
Although it's far from my biggest rack, he's my biggest bodied deer from Michigan. He weighed 190lbs field dressed on two different scales. I didn't believe the first one! I haven't got him aged yet but I'm very interested to see what exactly he is. I'll probably be sending in a tooth for cementum aging just so I know.
Topic: Michigan 9pt (Read 10615 times)
