The fun of checking the trail camera to see if he was there, the anticipation of heading out to the 6 acre wood and climbing in the stand, and dreaming about him walking in a shooting lane and releasing an arrow
is finally over.  Skyler and I were down in the dumps due to having a neat, but frustrating encounter yesterday morning (the story of our season).  I was filming with Skyler on the trigger and we had a nice 8 pointer (130+) come in directly behind the tree.  He got us in a bind and we could not pull off a shot.  We then headed out to get a crack at a deer I call Tallboy as this was really the last time we would be hunting together for some time and with the rut winding down all my chips were on the table.  The weather man said the wind was going to be coming from the SE which is perfect for this set up and it was blowing straight west which was blowing our scent right at where he usually comes from.  Needless to say I was not very optimistic.  Then all of a sudden Skyler said he saw legs coming our way from the south and then he said tallboy, its tallboy.  He got into a shooting lane at 30 yards and when I released the arrow I felt good about the shot, but I saw a lot of arrow sticking out when he ran off.  My worst fear had come true……..the shot was a little far forward hitting the shoulder.  A long sleepless night followed.  We hunted in the am to give him plenty of time and then went to look after eating lunch.  A consistent blood trail lead us not far from where we had last seen him.

Man does  Tallboy have some length.  I have over 150 pictures of this deer and passed him last year as he really looked young.  The trail camera picture of Skyler and I was after the shot when we were heading out.  My dry spell is over.  A big thanks to Skyler is in order for all his travels down to film and hunt with me this year.

Hunt hard, Hunt smart, Hunt safe.

Clayton

On the way out

RecoveryStill in shock

Happy Camper