I had gotten pictures last December of a really tall-tined buck that apparently had been shot during the late muzzleloading season. He was shot in the upper part of his right front leg, just below the body, breaking the leg bone there. The deer was really skinny and I didn't figure that he would make it through the winter. I got pictures of him on 2 different cameras over 2 days and then that was it.
Fast forward to this year. The first week of Sept., I got pictures of a really tall-tined buck that had a broken right front leg that had healed. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that it was probably the same deer that I had gotten pictures of in December. He had a good rack on the right side, but the left side was screwed up a bit from the broken leg. He wasn't the biggest deer that I was after, but I figured that if I got a shot at him I'd take it just to put him out of his misery. Plus I kinda' like screwed up racks like that.
Saturday morning it was overcast, so daylight was delayed. I had 3 deer come in, the buck and 2 does. At first, it was so dark that I could only make out outlines. I figured that it was a momma and 2 little ones. As I kept watching them though, the "big" one kept running the little ones off. I thought that was weird for a momma to be running off her little ones. I really started looking at the bigger one and could start to make out antlers. I studied him longer and it looked like he had a curve in his leg from it being broken, and the rack looked like the one that had the broken leg.
I put the bow up, settled the 20 yd. crosshair on his chest and squeezed it off. At the shot, he mule-kicked and took off. He ran up the hill in front of me, took a right and then stopped. He started moving again, but I heard him go down. Looked at my watch and it was 7:12 AM.
I waited until 7:45 and then came down out of the stand. Where it was overcast, it was still kinda' dark, so I was using a flashlight trying to pick up the blood trail. The leaves were wet from a rain the previous evening, so I never was able to find any blood. I started walking the hill where I heard him running and go down. It took me about 15 minutes to find him. When I walked up on him I knew it wasn't the deer I thought it was.
Still a good deer, but I wish he could have lived another year.Since it was still early, I didn't want to mess with my brother's hunting by going and getting him. I walked out, got the 4 wheeler, and pulled it up on the road above where he was. I only had about 40 yds to drag him, but is was uphill. Getting him up on the 4 wheeler was a trick too! I had to pull him up beside the 4 wheeler, use a bungie cord and tie his rack off to the back rack of the 4 wheeler, climb up on top of the 4 wheeler, and then unhook the bungie cord and drag him up on top of the rack.
The pictures are deceiving. His body is quite a bit bigger than what it looks like in the pictures. He field dressed at 130 lbs.
I'm still debating on whether or not to get him mounted.
When I skinned him out, I did it so I could if I wanted to. He's got some really pretty hair, with still some of his red summer hair. But I need another shoulder mount like I need another hole in my head! 
At least now, I can concentrate on helping the boy fill his tag(s). I hope we can find one of the 3 bucks that I was originally after. That would be cool.
Got him with the Excalibur Equinox, GT arrows, Swhacker broadheads, and a "hippie" string that Boo made for me.
down there in the "Hills of Kentucky"...... congrats are surely in order...
