Trophy Buck Profile

October 8, 2011 started pretty well, the wind finally blew in the right direction. I could sneak in and hunt a great stand that 2 good bucks were using every morning.

My season hadn’t been going very well for me personally. I spent the 2011 summer watching cameras and putting in food plots. Preseason I hung plenty of stands, trying to cover a couple of key areas and wind directions. While hanging one of those stands, a slip resulted in a right shoulder injury that just about ended the season before it got started. Not happy and unable to pull my Mathews, I was going to use my son’s crossbow to get into the woods.

I had been watching a buck we named Crabby, he was a resident buck and made his rounds. He wasn’t anything special and we watched him throughout the 2010 season. We almost shot him several times.

I spent most of the Spring trying to find his sheds, but never did. I continued to get plenty of pics and was seeing some promising growth. The food plots and protein feeders had helped him and another buck put on some inches.

That morning, I snuck in earlier than normal, it was going to get pretty warm and I didn’t want to sweat. I would be settled in and relaxed at shooting light. Needless to say, about 25 minutes to legal light several deer ran by at warp speed with 2 dogs hot on their trail. I was pretty hot, it was the first time to finally sit that stand and holding a crossbow didn’t make me any happier. Things never go as planned, but I decided to sit and wait it out. I was sure nothing would happen, my morning was shot. It was already 55 degrees. It wasn’t long after that a small buck walked through and I decided to sit for another hour, maybe it wasn’t Crabby being chased by the dogs??

Ten minutes later, I saw Crabby coming across the flat to my left, moving slowly and looking spooked. It took forever for him to cover about 55 yds and I would lose sight of him with all of the cover still green. He finally made it to a mineral lick, 30 yds. out and would come within 15 yds. if he followed his normal route. At 17 yds I clicked off the safety and put the crosshairs on him. He stopped just where I needed and I let the Rage broadhead eat. The shot was perfect, he jumped and ran 20 yds before tumbling over the bank. I didn’t wait long to get down and looked at the bolt covered in blood, good blood. I scanned the area where I had hoped he expired, but he was not there. Instead he traveled another 50 yds over another very steep bank and down to the bottom. I was very satisfied to finally put my hands on Crabby. He had 14 points on his mainframe 8 rack.