My Trifecta is Complete!!!!!

KDM

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
9,650
Likes
1,582
Points
563
Location
Valley City
It's been an AWESOME deer season for me this year!! It started off with a full velvet buck with my bow and progressed to an average, but VERY memorable rifle buck. Here's the story:

It was the Monday after the second weekend as I was hunting in MN with my 76 year old Uncle for the first week of the season. The whole area was blanketed in a thick layer of fog, so my expectations at even seeing a deer, let alone shooting one were not real high. I could only see between 50 and 150 yards depending on how the fog was rolling. As dawn arrived I could just barely make out a form moving towards me through the fog at about 150 yards. I put the binocs up and saw it was a pretty big deer, but I couldn't make anything else out before the fog swallowed the deer again. Then I caught glimpses of the deer periodically as it ghosted in and out of view through the fog. This went on for about 10 minutes with this deer materializing and then disappearing again. It was SO COOL to watch. Finally the fog gave me an opening and I could see this deer had a pretty good set of bone on his noggin. I put the rifle up and watch the deer slowly walk through the fog until he was broadside at about 100 yards. He stopped, looked at my position and the blew streams of steam out both his nostrils. THAT was all it took!!! The scenario of this was just too cool to not bring it to a close. I touched the trigger, the gun roared, and the buck made it all the way to the bottom of the draw before piling up. He's not a shoulder mount deer, but I did make a Euro of him that will go nicely with my velvet buck and what the Good Lord blessed me with this morning. Here's the Euro.

IMG_5045.jpg

Pursuing my muzzy buck has been quite the endeavor. I have been hunting every morning and evening since the opener with the exception of one, which was during the recent rains we received. I had a shot at a real nice buck the Saturday of opening weekend in a cornfield, but my rangefinder must have been reading corn stalks as I thought the deer was at 150, but when I shot, the deer just looked at me, and trotted off. Afterwards I ranged about where he was from a higher vantage and the deer was closer to 225. I shot so low on him it was ridiculous. Oh Well!! Since then, I have had several 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks in my sights from 30-150 yards, but nothing I wanted on my wall. It's been a rush watching all these deer do what they do, but the hunt was starting to drag on. The muddy conditions limited my options as to where I could hunt and those areas had lots and lots of young deer, but nothing mature came by. Last night Dad and I decided that 25 degrees would harden the ground enough to get back to where I had the shot at that nice buck on opening weekend so off we went at 6:20 this morning. We got to our spot and immediately saw deer. At 7:15, a doe and a fawn were clearly visible in the snow walking up the opposite side of the draw which was really cool as it gave us hope that maybe a mature buck was nosing around behind them. NOT!! So the glassing continued. A few minutes after the doe and fawn disappeared over the rise I noticed a large form out in the corn field and poked my Dad. Through the binocs we both watched this form and when it raised it's head we simultaneously whispered, "That's a good deer." It was about 7:20 or so and not legal shooting light yet so we just kept track of the buck hoping he'd stay put and I'd get a shot. I took out the range finder as we waited for legal light and popped off several ranges which went from 151-165. Right at legal shooting time, 7:29 I raised the gun and found the deer in the sights. However, he was facing directly at me and that's NOT a shot I wanted to take. The buck was just milling around and had no clue we were there, so we waited. And Waited, And Waited, And Waited.....for what seemed like an eternity as the buck went back and forth giving me first his face, then his ass. Oye what a deal. FINALLY, he turned walked toward me and turned broadside. I moved the sights right up his front leg to the middle of his chest and touched the trigger. BOOM-POOF......all I could see was white. I heard my Dad say "You Hit'em!!" followed by "He's going down, He's going down...........He's Down!! He reached over, shook my hand and gave me a hearty "Congratulations." Walking up on him was an extremely gratifying and humbling experience. I haven't hunted so hard for a deer in quite a while so to finally achieve the goal of fulfilling the ND Trifecta on three mature bucks is something I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Now to some interesting factoids about this deer. First, this is the exact deer I missed on Saturday morning. Two, he was a bit farther than I thought as I didn't hit him where I was aiming. I hit him a bit low, but right in the heart. I paced it off and he was just shy of 200 yards. If I'd have known that I would have waited for a closer shot. That's a bit farther than I like to shoot so the range finder must have been reading tall corn stalks. Glad I allowed for a bit of drop. Three, sometime earlier this year, someone had shot this guy with an arrow. A clean pass though above the spine, in front of the shoulder blades with a three blade broadhead. This buck has matching wounds on each side of his body that aren't completely healed yet. You can see the mark in the hair in the pic. Tough SOB. On to the pics...

20161202_085249.jpg

20161202_091144 (1).jpg
 




Srputz

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 16, 2015
Posts
533
Likes
0
Points
146
Location
Kulm
Nice job. Great story. Love to see a picture of all three together
 

svnmag

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
16,890
Likes
2,400
Points
773
Location
Here
Hope to see that heart in cast iron soon!
 

KDM

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
9,650
Likes
1,582
Points
563
Location
Valley City
I plan on having a triple pedestal mount done with my velvet buck on the bottom facing left, the Euro mount in the middle, and this buck on top facing right. Hope I can engineer the stand to hold all of that up. Stand By!! Should be 18 months to 2 years before I can get this part completed.

- - - Updated - - -

Nice job. Great story. Love to see a picture of all three together

Best I can do right now.....

P9020419.jpg
DSC06259.jpg
20161202_085320.jpg
 


2400

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Posts
8,580
Likes
44
Points
276
Location
Northern AZ
Congratulations, looks like you had one hell of a great year deer hunting. I"ll bet the freezers full too, you've got some great meals coming this winter.
 

KDM

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
9,650
Likes
1,582
Points
563
Location
Valley City
HaHa!! I could put in an ad for blue num nums if it would make you feel better PrairieGhost.

Srputz, I get giddy for Big 4's as well. My dream buck is a clean 4X4 that scores over 150.

2400, Actually, none of the bucks I've taken are very good table fare. Strong gamey taste and tough as nails. The only one close to being tender and flavorful was my velvet buck and he's marginal. The other two are total sausage bucks. Next year when I assume I won't have the trifecta I'll be back to shooting for the table and not for horns.
 


KDM

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
9,650
Likes
1,582
Points
563
Location
Valley City
Sausage fest will be sometime in January there Zogman. Come on out and you can make whatever you want and take it with you.
 

ShootnBlanks

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Posts
1,241
Likes
9
Points
176
Location
Alice ND
Congrats on an AWESOME year in the field! Great deer and fun to read the stories that go with the pics
 

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA

Top Posters of the Month

  • This month: 168
  • This month: 137
  • This month: 121
  • This month: 110
  • This month: 105
  • This month: 88
  • This month: 84
  • This month: 79
  • This month: 77
  • This month: 76
Top Bottom