Lake Champlain United - Forums

Some of the guys on the fishing forum told me to post my Thanksgiving Buck...so here goes. Had a rough season so far, trespassers in my stand, shooting my (I'd like to think so) deer (a doe and a 8pt) had little hope since I hadn't seen a live deer in woods since the opening on Saturday. Got up 4:00am all week and out in the woods all day. I almost didn't go Thanksgiving morning but something told me I should. A cold morning and I saw the sun rise after about 45 minutes of sitting in my stand. I was already trying to keep my hands from freezing. Frost on the ground and dry leave made squirrels sound like elephants, my neck started to get sore from rotating like and owl at all the sounds in woods. A big wood pecker (pleated ?) almost made me fall out of the tree when he started pounding away on the tree next to me. Heard a few shots here and there, only one close by, echoed down the valley for it seemed like 5 seconds. Around 8:52am I heard a crash and breaking branches, I could make out a deer heading right for the trail which lead up to my stand. Once he broke out into the open about 65 yards away all I could see were antlers and that huge swollen neck. I raised my 700 (.308 w/a 130 grain sst handload) touched off a shot. It slammed into his neck and his front legs collapsed...He did a back leg shuffle for about 30 yards while I sat there stunned, I got my composure and put another round into his spine...lights out. After about 30 seconds of the shivers and disbelief I climbed out of my stand and inspected this fine animal I just took. The neck was huge, guessing around 28" or more, heavy, about 200lbs, will find out later today from butcher. 10 pt...a quick measurement of inside spread was 18 1/2 ", bases over 3 1/2" in dia. 3 tines a little over 8 1/2" and one over 7" long A very happy Thanksgiving for me for sure...Hope you enjoyed my post...Jimbow

Some guys wanted some clarification....18 1/2" INSIDE spread, 22 1/2" beam (base to tip), had to be a 3 1/2 or better year old deer. Shot in Albany County N.Y.

congrats on a fine buck. I'm start hunting with you

Congrats Jimbow on your catch. Great memorable Thanksgiving.
Love reading your post.

congratulations again jim you only sent me 1 pic and there is 3 here outstanding. great shots in the woods to. lots of memories with those 2 healthy bucks.

Congrats jimbo thats a great buck.

Great buck. On a roll this year! Room in the freezer for the does now?

What an awesome buck, Jimbow! You've had a great season so far ... congratulations!!

One last up date that I forgot to post, the deer weight was 195lbs....The season ended with this deer, couldn't fill out any doe tags with bow/muzzle loader...But I'm not complaining

One More Pix

thanks jim for another look. hope you feeling better.

Are you going to get it mounted?

Your salmon maybe small , but look at this rack. Congrats

My Avatar pic is the only one I could shrink small enough to fit in the space (250 megpix) or I'd post the one of my 7 1/2 lb salmon (I tried and didn't work).

What a great looking buck. Congrats!