Hunter: Caleb Lord
Points: 8 (4L, 4R)
County: Washington
Season: 2016-2017
Hunt Story
I was hunting this buck and another one that was using the same area. I had a stand in the area and could never hunt it due to the wind. So I went in the week before and hung a stand for a east wind; I hunted it that afternoon with no luck. I went back the next afternoon and had an encounter with this deer. He came in from a field behind me which totally threw me a curve ball; I was not expecting him to come from that direction and couldn't get a shot. We finally got a west wind, but it was also from the south. I still couldn't hunt the stand I wanted, so I moved the stand for a east wind to the other side of the hardwood head; the head is only about 4 acres in size right in the middle of a pine thicket and on the edge of a sunflower field. I hurried up after work to get there was running late, but I figured what the heck, if it's meant to be, then it will happen. I got settled in around 6:15 and had two does and a small 8 feeding around at 6:45. After a few minutes, they all began looking in the direction I was expecting the movement to come from and the small 8 starting easing away from the does. I peaked over my shoulder and there he was, 30 yards and looking at the does. He bumped at them and they scampered off, he's now at 20 yards and quartered away. I didn't waste any time taking the shot; I watched him run about 60 yards and stop. I grabbed my binos to take a look and couldn't find him, so I figured he fell right there. I called my wife and told her what happened and to load the kids up and come on. I had a blast celebrating with the kids when we found this 218-lb. beast 60 yards from where I shot him!
