This season, I was finally able to shoot my first 10 point buck. They are not as common in the area where I hunt and I have shot everything else including a 9, 11, and 12 point.
The buck came out on the afternoon of Saturday, November 10h. It was only 3:25 in the afternoon so I was not expecting much to be out that early. I saw him right as he came out of some brush on the neighbors property. I was able to catch a quick glimpse of him through my binoculars before he went behind some brush.
My binoculars are only 10x while my rifle scope is 12x. When something looks promising, I'll switch from my binoculars to my rifle. I did that in this instance and by the time I had it up, the buck was nearing the edge of my feed pin. He was on a straight line to the feeder, wasting absolutely no time. The path he took is represented by the red line in the picture below with the red circle showing where I first saw him exit the brush.
I watched him in the feed pin for what seemed to be a long time but was likely only a few seconds. I wanted to get a good shot and also ensure the bullet would clear the bars of the hog panel surrounding the feeder. When all was in alignment, I pulled the trigger slowly and saw no movement afterwards. I checked my watch as I normally wait about 30 minutes before walking over and it was 3:27.
I exited the stand after about 10 minutes and walked straight to the truck. I then drove the truck over to the feed pin. This was more to save overall time than anything as the feed pin is only 125 yards from the stand. I found the buck fell in his tracks without moving a step. He was immediately under the feeder.
The buck is 16" wide between the main beams and very symmetrical. He isn't the largest that I've shot and based on my scoring is a 132.125 gross and 128.785 final buck by Boone and Crockett standards. I had his antlers European mounted and they look great. They will likely end up on the wall in my office at work.
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