# My 2010 Whitetail Buck



## tatonka (Sep 1, 2006)

Well, I filled my buck tag the other day..... Don't recall ever filling my tag this early, but I couldn't pass on this buck. I'd seen him about a month or so ago on some posted property, but just saw him the one time. I caught a glimpse of a nice buck going into the brush on a small piece of ground I have permission to hunt right at daybreak last week about 3/4 mile from where I'd seen this buck a few weeks back. I was pretty sure it was the same buck, but only caught a quick look and wasn't sure. I set up near where I'd seen the buck that afternoon and waited. About sundown I saw a tree shaking and figured a big buck was working it over.... a few minutes later he stepped out. I clicked a couple photos before I shot.. I killed him with an old Winchester Model 64 30-30. He dropped in his tracks. When I was taking pictures he stood by the fence and started shaking his head back and forth.....caught him doing there in the second photo here.

I couldn't get him loaded in my pickup where he was laying, so I tied him to the back and drug him up to a small hillside where I could get the tailgate closer to the ground.....still had to grunt some to get him loaded.


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## fowlhunter7 (Mar 1, 2005)

Great buck!! Congrats


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## Rajun Cajun (Sep 5, 2010)

Great buck and pics to boot.......Nice!


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

Good Job :thumb:

And I really like the gun  Tell us more.


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

Thanks for sharing... great story and pics.


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## tatonka (Sep 1, 2006)

When I was walking down to the buck after I shot him I saw an antler tine from a shed sticking up out of the leaves. I picked it up and continued on to the buck......didn't really look at it till I got home. I'm pretty sure this antler is from the buck I killed... If you look at the second tine on the shed there is the start of a sticker point and there was a sticker point broken off on the buck I killed on the same tine... What are the odds of picking up a shed to the buck you just killed as you are walking up to him??? This shed would have been from two years ago.. I had this buck within 20 yards of me during bow season last year and passed on him.....he grew quite a bit from last year.....


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## specialpatrolgroup (Jan 16, 2009)

Odd you would find a shed this time of year, generally mice will eat them.


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## tatonka (Sep 1, 2006)

specialpatrolgroup said:


> Odd you would find a shed this time of year, generally mice will eat them.


I find shed horns in the fall all the time. I do a lot of bird hunting with my dogs as well as big game hunting and actually find more in the fall than I do in the spring. Mice and other rodents don't seem to gnaw on antlers around here for some reason..... I've found many antlers that I know were a year or more old and they were not damaged at all. They'll usually get quite bleached out from the sun, of course, but this particular antler was under a bunch of leaves in a stand of cottonwoods, so it was protected from the sun. It was just by luck that I happened to be looking down and saw the one tine sticking out of the leaves.....

Many years ago I was hunting for mule deer in the big mountains and found a ravine where Mule deer obviously had wintered for many years... I don't know how many shed antlers were laying there. They were everywhere and it was obvious that some were recent and many others had been there for several years.. Some were very decayed and weathered while others were nearly perfect. I picked up 3 or 4 of the biggest ones and didn't bother with the rest.......I was a long ways from my truck and didn't want to lug a bunch of bones out. I was always going to go back there just to pick up horns, but never made it.


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## Recurvenator (Aug 6, 2010)

Congrats! Love the gun and bluegrass too, but what's a Montana boy doing wearing a Boston Roid Sux hat?


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## tatonka (Sep 1, 2006)

Recurvenator said:


> Congrats! Love the gun and bluegrass too, but what's a Montana boy doing wearing a Boston Roid Sux hat?


Well, I grew up in Vermont (moved to Montana 33 years ago) and was stationed in Boston from 1970 to 1974 when I was in the Coast Guard........I was rootin' for the Sox through all those dismal years. Get this, when I was in the USCG a serviceman could get into a game at Fenway for $.50. It costs me $1.00 to go to a game.......$.25 each way on the subway and thr $.50 to get in. Of course, I spent 20 times that amount on beer and hotdogs!!! :beer:

Bluegrass: I grew up with it and my daughter and I have a group here in Chinook..... I play banjo, guitar, mandolin, and dobro. She plays guitar and is our lead singer.


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## Bogtrotter (Aug 24, 2010)

Nice Buck! and with a classic rifle, no less. I used to do alot of finger pickin,till arthritis got the best of me. Got a good freind plays banjo in a blegrass band.


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## duckp (Mar 13, 2008)

Great stuff and buck and rifle.
I sometimes wonder if Vermont boys aren't born wearing green plaid wool.  
Last time I whitetail hunted Canada I walked into a cafe and there was a whole booth of green wool-all from Vermont.
Good hunting!


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## pre-war (Mar 24, 2010)

That is a good buck! Congratulations! The hat needs to go.


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