After having the time of my life hunting every weekend for 2 months straight with my 11 year old son, it was my turn to hunt for myself. Conditions were brutal. No snow, crunchy timber, and most rutting action was nocturnal. Deer sightings were really low, with some days of zero deer. I pounded back the miles on the ol' Sheep Hunters and really felt like I was beating my head against a brick wall. On day 7, I had wet conditions to soften up the noise. I was still-hunting my way up a nice ridge when I encountered my buck. He was 40 yards from me and had no idea I was there. When I saw him, I instantly recognized him as a buck I've watched and filmed for 2 out of the last 3 winters. I knew he was a great character buck and having the personal history with him, I slipped the saftey off and dropped him. I am stoked to have been able to kill 2 bucks back to back that I have had a lot of personal history with. I first saw this buck in the winter of 04/05. I had nicknamed him Deep Forks that winter. He was really narrow, but the forks were really nice.
The winter of 05/06 he came in a little different. He had a big inline on his one side which was just his G3 coming off the main instead of the G2. He had dropped his G4 and he grew a huge G1. He was still really narrow but I wasn't sure he was the same buck. That year I nicknamed him Eyeguard Buck.
My buddy, Matt, was the one to put 2 and 2 together and figured the buck was one and the same. I never saw hide nor hair of the buck the winter of 06/07. I assumed he was catscat. But when I saw him last Friday, I instantly knew Matt was right, Deep Forks and the Eyeguard buck were the same deer.
He has some awesome character. He is 24 inches tall with a 18 1/2 inch outside spread. I didn't even think about score when I shot him. I just knew he was the buck I wanted because of my personal history with him. Looking at him on the ground, I was thinking he'd gross in the mid 180's as a 7x7. I think the narrow spread had me underestimating him big time. I was shocked when I finally put the tape on him. He grosses 199 6/8. His stong side has a 91 inch frame. Those G3's are flippin amazing. The big eyeguard is pretty cool as well.
The winter of 05/06 he came in a little different. He had a big inline on his one side which was just his G3 coming off the main instead of the G2. He had dropped his G4 and he grew a huge G1. He was still really narrow but I wasn't sure he was the same buck. That year I nicknamed him Eyeguard Buck.
My buddy, Matt, was the one to put 2 and 2 together and figured the buck was one and the same. I never saw hide nor hair of the buck the winter of 06/07. I assumed he was catscat. But when I saw him last Friday, I instantly knew Matt was right, Deep Forks and the Eyeguard buck were the same deer.
He has some awesome character. He is 24 inches tall with a 18 1/2 inch outside spread. I didn't even think about score when I shot him. I just knew he was the buck I wanted because of my personal history with him. Looking at him on the ground, I was thinking he'd gross in the mid 180's as a 7x7. I think the narrow spread had me underestimating him big time. I was shocked when I finally put the tape on him. He grosses 199 6/8. His stong side has a 91 inch frame. Those G3's are flippin amazing. The big eyeguard is pretty cool as well.
