Hunter: Hilton Hobby
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Dawson
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
This buck showed up on our trail camera for the first time this season in December...always at night. The camera was set up on a corn feeder and salt block. On January 9th 2025 my 11yr old son and I where hunting over the bait site in a box blind my dad built. This buck came in around 4:30 in the evening, and despite being VERY jumpy (the doe I killed in that very spot two days earlier may have had something to do with it) he gave us a 65-yard slightly quartered away target. My son took the shot and the buck ran strait up a steep hill, paused on top, then casually walked away. We looked for evidence of a hit and found none. Two days later I'm in the same box blind with my daughter who killed her first deer a few weeks earlier from the same spot. A few minutes before 6pm, as the light was beginning to fade, I saw him standing about 80yds away looking at the bait site. I told my daughter not to make a sound because there was a deer in front of us. Moments later I told her to put her book down and "don't make a sound." She put the book on the shelf, let go of it, and it fell to the floor with a loud thud! The deer didn't move. My daughter couldn't see the deer so I put her scope on him and she commented on how nervous looking he was. At this point I couldn't tell if it was the same buck from two nights ago, I just knew it was a big one. She watched him for about a minute as he stood completely still at 80yds at about a 45 degree quartering to angle. I was hoping he would come closer and give us a broad side shot, but after about a minute of watching him through the scope my daughter said, "I can shoot him right there." I told her to take the shot if she felt good about it, and as I was speaking, the buck stepped behind some trees. As the buck began to walk closer and into the open, I picked up my rifle to use as a backup if needed (I didn't have it with me on my son's hunt) and when I did, my January edition GON magazine fell out of my front pocket and made a loud enough noise to convince the buck that he really didn't want to hang around after all. As he walked farther away through the trees my daughter lost sight of him and could not pick him out anywhere. I told her to keep looking, but if I got an opening I would take the shot since he looked intent on leaving us. Just as she began to ask me for a warning before I fired, the buck appeared in a small opening I had my scope on and I fired immediately. I'm guessing he was a little over 100yds away at this point. I felt good about the shot, but it all happened so fast I couldn't be sure so I decided to wait a couple hours before looking for him. A friend came over to help track and recover and my son was eager to come as well. After a little searching my son found blood. Soon the blood trail opened up wide and was no trouble to follow at all. We found the buck lying dead in a creek less than 100yds from where I shot him. Unfortunately, the coyotes found him first. They ate 2/3 of one back quarter and his nose. This buck is my personal best.
