Hunter: John Williams
Points: 16 (8L, 8R)
County: Cook
Season: 2024-2025
Hunt Story
This buck was a ghost most of the year. I have had him on camera since last year, but he disappeared this season and was very hard to keep on camera. He bounced around and at first I didn't realize it was the same deer. I had another deer on camera that looked very similar and I thought it was the same buck for a while until a buddy noticed the difference. Once I killed my first target, I began focusing on this deer, but I would have been fine killing either one first. I started getting him back on camera about 2-3AM every other night or every few nights then he'd be gone a week. I just started hunting the stands he was at in the middle of the night hoping he'd make his rounds back in daylight. Sure enough on the morning of the 12th we had a fog advisory and foggy mornings always produce a little bit more daylight activity it seems. Four does came on the feeder right at daylight and then a big bodied deer with a tall rack came out and bumped them all except one off the feeder. I only got a glimpse of him through the fog and low light, but I could tell it was more than likely him. He started feeding at the port of the Boss Buck away from me, as I hit the record button on the camera and switched between looking the view finder and my binoculars. Once he turned to walk off and look at the does he just bumped off is when I knew it was him and switched to looking through my scope. I flipped off the two safety's and I shot him quartered to me just a hair. The bullet exited back, but I knew I hit him because I could hear the thud after the silenced .308 went off. I watched a spike come by about 10 minutes later and could tell he was looking down. I thought that was a good sign, but I was still nervous about the shot because it all happened so fast it seemed like. I waited another 20 minutes to go look for blood and bumped the spike off the feeder. He wasn't laying but 20 yards down the mowed trail behind the feeder, and the rest is history!!
