wow what a good weekend of hunting. All week last week I had in my mind where I wanted to hunt this weekend and for whatever reason I never even considered hunting another stand. I was really after a turkey and it is a known hangout for them. My uncle and grandpa had been on the farm this week planting new food plots since the drought killed them all and also moved a few stands around and my gradpa ahad seen a "dandy" in the area where I was wanting to hunt. My uncle informaed me that the stand I was wanting to hunt was one he had to move a few yards do to the tree being dead now and he didn't feel safe with it. He only moved it about 5 yards and had actually moved it closer to a HOT trail coming onto our property. It was just my uncle and myself hunting this weekend since our Dyersburg buddies are holding off till later in the season to come over so we left the house around 5 and headed to Giles County. We talked strategy, wind directions, etc., and headed out just before day break to our stands. I had a good 1/2 mile walk through the center of the lease and back to the back of the farm and walked through 3 food plots on the way in. I never jumped a deer which is very unusual for this spot that is absolutely loaded with deer every year. It is a 90 acre block that is pretty much all thickets with a few food plots on it. It is surrounded by a 100+ acre alfalfa field that we have a right of way down the side of and park in on one side. The rest is cattle and horse pastures. All deer within a mile bed on the place and it is always a best bet when you want to see lots of deer.
I finally get to my stand, I am sweating bad, I have mud half way to my knees from wading through the fresh plowed ground in the food plots. I get up in the 16ft ladder stand and get all situated just as it is getting good light. I have my back to the line fence with the wind starting to blow from my right to left back out into a cattle pasture, which is great for me. There is a small maybe 5 acre spot that is off of our land that has been clear cut last year that goes up in behind some houses that is pretty thick to my right, a long shooting lane in front of me, and thick grew up mess to my left and in front of me bordering the cattle pasture. The morning was slow, I heared some hens off in the cattle pasture yelping and that kept me awake and looking for the better part of the morning. I checked my watch and it was 8:15, I am bored, haven't seen an animal, just some house wrens and a rabbit or 5. I hang my bow up and sit down in my trophy chair and relax. At 8:20 I hear a twig snap to my right in the small tract of thick brush that is off the property. I ease my head to the right and see a nice buck about to go through the fence where we had cut it to make it a great crossing for deer. I reach around and slip my hand into my bow and take it off the hanger. I peer back right and the buck is going through the fence coming onto our land, I began to stand up and I see 2 more shooter bucks behind him, but notice he is the biggest body and racked buck of the three. I check my arrow to make sure it is on the rest, make sure my release is on correct, and pinch myself to make sure this is really not a really good dream I am having. I finally get stood up as the first two shooter bucks make it through the fence. I have to hurry or they are all three going to be past me before I get in position to shoot, they came through the fence at 15 yards and are now angling in front of me. The lead buck stops and starts snifing the air and my heart sinks to the floor, I know I am busted. he is just being cautious before he enters the shooint lane and food plot is all. The wind is blowing a good 5 mph from him to me. The deer close the gap to 8 steps and stop once more. I am now in position. The lead buck scratches his nose with his front hoof and begins to angle away from me. I draw and he stops once more at MAYBE 10 yards and I let the Matthews slam the Thunderhead home. He bolts and does the "Death Run" that we call it through the food plot for 40 yards and cuts hard left into some sage grass with one of the other bucks dead on his heels. I have to sit down because I have just arrowed the biggest buck of my life and have had a very exciting 5 minutes to say the least. I think I hear him crash and am releaved. Did I mention I am shaking like a leaf on a tree. I begin to get my duds together, I put my quiver back on my bow and am about to let my bow down when I see a deer walking back out towards the plot. I am thinking WHAT THE CRAP, is that deer not dead???? The smaller buck walked back out at about 45 yards and wanders down the food plot without his fearless leader. I can tell you that I have never felt so good about a shot before, I can see my arrow buried up halfway in the leaves below and I could see the blood squirting out of the pump house on both sides as he ran away. I finally settle down and get down and make a dash for the truck, I knew he was dead, but was taking no chances. I owl at my uncle at 8:55 and he comes and meets me at the gate. He knows this is something good or I would not have bothered him at all. I told him the story and we go to the truck and drive back to the field and get out to where I had last saw him go in. The tracking in the sage was tough, but he was bleeding out of both sides and like a stuck hog. We found him mayeb 20 yards later piled up not 60 yards from where I had shot him at. He is a main frame 8 in full velvet with three kickers. Two on his left base that are both over 3 inches each and one the back of his right base just over an inch making him an 11 point. After some celebrating and high fives we drug him 10 yards to the shooting lane he was closest to and loaded him up in the truck. We pulled up to the salt lick that I had a trail camera on for the last few weeks and noticed I had over 950 pictures on it so I pulled it also so I could see what I had pictures of. I was hoping I would have some pictures of the other two bucks as well as some before pics of the deer I had just killed.
Here are a few trail cam pics that I have. Only a few pics of him though, but you can see the velvet still on his horns in the pics. The other two bucks are good deer also and shooters with a bow for sure. I have about 30 pics of the second biggest buck which is a perfect 8, but looks young still. I hope if I don't get him with a bow that my cousin will get one of them on the juvy hunt.
Here are a few AFTER pics. He is 18.25 inches wide.
I wasn't going to say anything about cutting Grass at Sonny's 
