Well, I have been busting my butt this year putting in way too much time in a tree stand, but it finally paid off. Yesterday afternoon just a bit past 2:30 I caught some movement to my left and this bad boy rolled out of a thicket. My slug round clipped a branch and broke into at least 3 pieces, broke his front shoulder, hit him high in the back and also hitting his back leg. Knocked him down into the creek he was standing next to. He laid in the creek for 4 minutes without moving and then took off crashing through a swampy thicket. I was able to keep up with him as he was hit bad. After missing several running shots, I let him bed down and was able to sneak up on him and make a good finishing shot on him. He ran over 800 yards before I was able to get him. Took me over 3 hours to drag him through a laurel thicket, back across the swampy creek bottom and then up a 100 yard 70 degree incline, down 200 yards of fire trail until I could get him to where I could get my pick up truck to. I was tore up by briars, covered in swamp mud up to my waste and sore as heck, but it was all worth it! He only scores around 120 gross, 19 6/8 inside spread, 8 scorable points, 3 on the left, 5 on the right to include a tiny 1 1/8 inch G3 and a 1 3/8 inch kicker off his right G2. He is no Midwestern beast, but for sandy coastal Virginia, I am tickled pink!
As I found him...
Couple photos from today before I starting processing him.
Yesterday was my last day of my hunting vacation as there is no Sunday hunting and I go back to work tomorrow... So the persistence and patience paid off!
