Dec. Buck: Woods to Wall

[rice]

Hi all! Thought you might want to see my best buck to date with a recurve and how it turned out as a european mount.

I had already killed 2 Doe for the year, but the bucks I saw this year were either too small or 2 far.

The monday following xmas, I got free and went to my huntin area. Monday night brought 5 Doe and 3 fawn into my ryegrass food plot. With no leaves on the trees to speak of, one of the 5 Doe would be looking at that lump in the tree, so I wasn't able to shoot. After about 20 minutes, they spooked and in walked 4 bucks  

I picked out the best of the bunch and dropped the string. The shot looked bad, so I snuck out and came back the following morning.

Here is the treestand I was sitting in and a shot of the foodplot.
 
 

[swp]

[rice]

That next morning, I went back to the spot to begin my search, It had been freezing over night, so I was not concerned about the meat, I was however worried about the hit, and about hogs or coyotes finding the buck overnight.
I went to the last place I had seen the deer and found no blood  :(
I really didn't expect to with my poor hit. But I had a plan, I started paralleling a ridge and scanning with my bino's. I went down it a mile, moved over and came back a mile, moved over and went back a mile, and did another mile coming back. Nothing!
I then thought about the pond, so made a big loop around it, still nothing! So I returned to the food plot a bit dejected.

[magnus]

[FerretWYO]

Dont be stalling now!!

[rice]

I had a drink of water and sat down for a minute, and started talking to myself. I said self, you have all day to look, so keep your head up!
I also said, self, that deer had to bleed, you need to look again closer!
So I again went back up to the last spot I had seen the deer, then went a little farther up the ridge.
 

What is this, my heart soared  
I started following a sparce blood trail and when i looked ahead, I saw an antler, and for a brief second thought it was my deer, but no, it was a drop from last spring.

 

I moved up to it and my arrow was laying next to it!

 

I thought that was pretty neat! And just beyond that, the blood trail got better.

[rice]

Let me tell you, I was getting happier by the minute!!!  Emotional highs and lows are sometimes hard to take. The farther I went the better the blood trail got. I went over a ridge and down into a little bottom. I found a spot he had bedded and as is my custom, I pulled up my bino's to scan ahead. This time I didn't see dropped antlers, but antlers attached to a dead deer!  

Here he is, not a monster buck, but my best recurve buck to date!

 

To say the least,I was one happy camper.

I did not have a tripod so I did not take a picture of myself, but have included an old picture of me in treestand.

 

very nice buck, its sometimes tough to slow down and look real close for the sign that you know is there.. congrats.  

[Zach Mikita]

Great deer!

[longbowben]

Thats cool GREAT BUCK  

[rice]

So Yesterday, I didn't have much going on so I decided to make a euromount out of his head.
I have 2 shoulder mounted bucks bigger than this one, one a longbow buck and one a muzzle kill, but to be honest, I prefer Euro mounts and have 4 from previous deer.
So I started by skinning out the head and removing most of the meat. I then put him on to boil.

 

I boiled him for 2 hours in water and borax powder.I then pulled him out and removed most of the meat from the skull. Most came off with a hose. I scraped a little with a pocket knife.
I dumped my water and filled it up again with fresh water and dawn dishsoap and boiled him for another 1.5 hours.

[Fritz]

Very nice buck! Congrats!

[Chris O]

Great story and trophy! Any chance you think that shed may be his form last season? Looks pretty similar from the picture.

[FerretWYO]

Very nice buck Rice. Congrats!!

[rice]

I use beauty shop peroxide on my mounts since it is more concentrated and apply it with a sponge paint brush. Here is how it looked before.

 

I left it sit over night and rinsed it off this morning. This is what it looks like now. It will whiten up some more in a day or two, but its ready to hang on the wall.

 

I will probably put it on a piece of barn wood and add some turkey feathers to spice it up.

Thanks for following along.

Chris Rice

[wisconsinteacher]

Great job.  One quick tip.  Let the skull dry up for a few days before you peroxide it because it will take it better when dry.

[Cody Schnettgoecke]

Nice buck, nice mount, and good job on tracking him!

[GRINCH]

Good Job tracking him,enjoy your mount.

[rice]

Chis O: It could be his rack, but that type of rack runs pretty true in a lot of the bucks harvested off this property so who knows. It was neat to find while on the blood trail.

CKR

[magnus]

Great story and pics too! That's a dandy buck. Great job on finding him!

Keeping the Faith!
Magnus