You guys know me well enough to know, I can't just post the pics...so here is the story with the backstory too.

This season has been pretty slow for our club located in Covington County (just southwest of Andalusia), so far. Warm weather to start and our soybeans didn't come up this fall due to a short drought immediately after they were planted. The wind has been crazy every sit, almost. It seems to blow in every single possible direction. Every buck I had planned to hunt this year have went into hiding--no sightings and no pics basically since the first week of November.

Having sat all my pre-planned morning spots multiple times, I decided Saturday night that, if the wind was right, I would head to a spot I bright-eyed this summer as a potential morning spot for a cold day. It's a fairly open hill side of thinned pines with a creek running down one side. You can see for 300 yards in some spots.

To combat the wacky wind we've been having, I grabbed a bottle of Trails End #307 on my way out the door. I used it a lot in Georgia a few years back and had some success with it as a cover scent on a bow only public land spot. I was grasping at straws a little, but thought in an area this open--it probably wouldn't hurt anything, but could potentially pay huge dividends.

I get signed out for the spot and get there without making a peep. I get climbed up, but before I can even sit down--I have a deer off about 100 yards blowing. I settle in and pull up the Tikka. It's just breaking daylight as the deer continues to blow, but I can't make out anything in the darkness. 30 minutes pass and the forest has quietened before I hear faint steps heading my direction. It's daylight enough and the culprit is close enough, I should see it. When I finally catch movement, a coyote had closed to within 20 yards and he starts angling away from me. For a split second I was hoping maybe the deer earlier had been blowing at the coyote, instead of at me, but that thought was interrupted as I heard a deer bolt from the area the coyote had headed. I could make out a couple of flashes of white and was able to quickly get the movement in the Nikon binos. Several trees hid the deer's head and vitals, but as the deer turned to look back in the direction of the coyote, I could make out a single main beam and tell it was probably a shooter. The next minutes were a cat and mouse game between the coyote, the buck and myself. I was trying to get the crosshairs on the buck while the buck was trying to get his on the coyote. The standoff ended with the buck trotting off angling away from me from my right to left.

Once again the forest went quite. I continued to search for any sign that the buck was returning, initially with no luck. 20 minutes after my initial encounter, I catch movement of something heading directly my way. From further to my left than the original buck had went out of sight, appeared a racked buck. The same racked buck? I'm not sure at this point, but I got hunkered down in my Summit with my knee pinned against the front rest to give myself a better prop to shoot from. The buck closed from about 170 yards down to 150 before he stopped. Quartering to me, I was very tempted to shoot (and probably would have in the past), but even in the adrenaline pumped moment I held off. A few steps and he turned broadside. "Burrrrrr". Grunt stop. I settled the crosshairs as I inhaled, then squeezed. First glance, it appeared he was plowing dirt, but my view of him was immediately compromised as I exhaled a large puff of air. When all cleared he was gone. He had literally disappeared in thin air. Where he was, there are a decent number of spots I could have seen him had he fallen--laying there with his horns shining in the sunlight. But I couldn't see a thing.

I waited 30 minutes and climbed down. I had mentally marked a spot when he first stopped before turning broadside, so I circled that direction hoping to intersect him down and out before I got there. No luck. No sign at all. I made it to my marked spot and started working to sorta complete the circle. Nothing. I cut back through the middle of the 70 yard diameter circle I had just made--and there he was. Dead still--not breathing--no movement. I stopped a second to give praise and stuck my head through the opening between my rifle and sling so my rifle would be on my back and my hands would be free to grab his horns after I approached. A few steps and I had already began to admire the rack I had only taken a few seconds to look at through the scope. At 10 yards, all of a sudden from a death nap, he jumps up and starts barreling away. He was struggling, but he was making decent progress. I quickly dialed down the scope to a "4" magnification. 20 yards, 30 yards.....he was getting farther and I had no shot. Just as I was about to squeeze a round off--just hoping to connect at this point, he half stumbled to a broadside shot and I fired off a shot to finish him.

What a hunt. So many highs and lows. So thankful for a beautiful morning in the woods and a beautiful buck to put the icing on the cake. My best guess is that the buck was headed straight toward me before he ran into the coyote. He bolted away, then took a wide sweeping circle around the coyote before heading straight back to me. I can't say for certain the scent was what was drawing him in, but it's certainly a possibility. There's also a possibility that what I saw was two totally different bucks. Lots of times, killing good bucks have a lot to do with where you hunt, how you prepare, how you hunt, etc. Lots of times it has a lot to do with luck. Some mornings that deer blowing at me for 5 minutes would have scared everything off. Some mornings I would have shot the fire out of that coyote and dealt with the consequence of possibly messing up the hunt. Some mornings that buck would have bolted at sight of the coyote and never looked back. Not this morning. Not this morning--this morning everything went right and I was able to capitalize when giving the opportunity.

He weighed 175lbs and had a 15.25" inside spread. He was a short stocky buck. You may notice in the pic his nose seems bent. I didn't notice it in person, only after getting home and looking at the pic. I'll have to report back on that later when I can take a better look at him.

Good buck and very good read

Nice story and deer!

great buck

Good story nice deer

Great story!! Congrats on a fine buck

nice buck. enjoyed the story.

Great story and great buck.

Congrats and good story.....

Great story, congrats on a fine deer

Thanks for sharing. Great deer and read.

You have good writing ability! Congrats!!! Very nice buck!!!

Congrats Justin! Nice buck.

Happy for you, Justin.