# Existential Buck 2008



## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Finally, after 10 days since seeing a shooter buck (125 or better), I got this guy yesterday morning while freezing my butt off in 6 degree weather.

I was set up behind a hay bale watching a travel route between a harvested corn field and a bedding area when this buck stepped out of a small slough the deer use as transit cover, 100 yards away. These high & tight ones can be hard to field judge but I guessed him to be at least 140 and didn't hesitate to drop him in his tracks.

As usual my initial field estimate was low. He proved to be 153 gross/146 net, my highest scoring buck to date. Had the right G1 & G4 matched the left, he would have been tantalizingly close to that magical 160 gross mark. I guess him to be 4.5 years old which makes me wonder what he might have developed into in another year or two!

With all the standing corn, odd & cold weather, on & off again rut activity, little deer movement, and very, very few shooter bucks seen, it has proven to be one of the most difficult and frustrating seasons I've ever hunted.

I'm calling this guy the Existential Buck, as this has been a season of existential deer hunting. I hunted 14.5 days straight and after it became clear how tough it was and the looming possibility that I wouldn't see another shooter, it became a grim process of getting up at 0400 every morning, de-scenting, donning scent free base layer, scent lok pants & shirt, snow camo bibs & jacket, and plodding out into the snow & cold to hunt through bitter adversity with little hope of success. True existentialism.

I don't deer hunt from inside a truck, so it was many cold discouraging hours of watching & glassing from wind cut vantage points till my eyes hurt. Two weeks of this and I have a windburned face & chapped lips that make me look like I've been in a fight and fingers cracked & bloody from the cold. Went through an entire tube of Super Glue, glueing the cracks closed every day. Those two or three on my trigger finger were nasty and flippin' hurt! I'm going to have to go back to work to recover!

But alls well that ends well. Not only did I grass my best buck ever, I get to reclaim the "Biggest Buck In The House" bragging rights from my wife.

Sweet...


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

Wow!!! Look at those tines. Congrats.


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## Shu (Oct 21, 2003)

Great story and buck. Way to stick it out for the big one!


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

High and tight is right!

Nice buck! very white rack!

Great story, way to stick it out! Makes it that much better when you connect!

Congrats!


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## duckmander (Aug 25, 2008)

great buck. home work pays off. and plans do come together. congrats.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

nice buck..


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Good story, and you deserve the deer. :beer:

Did you get a discount on that rifle, since Remington obviously screwed up and put the bolt on the wrong side?


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

That particular rifle is another story, Csquared. Before we were married, my wife asked me what my dream rifle might be. I didn't realize she was planning on buying whatever I came up with as a wedding gift, or I might have said a Weatherby or custom, rather than a stainless Remington 700 with the grey laminated stock in 270.

On our wedding day 11 years ago she presented me with this rifle. I gave her a S&W Lady Smith 9MM. With this gun, I thee wed... 

Anyway, of all the rifles in my safe, "Grey Death" is my favorite. It has killed a pile of deer & goats in the past decade, with many more to come I'm sure. When the chips are down, this is the rifle I bet on...


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Do you have any single sisters-in-law ??????


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Congrats NDT...now get those dogs some work!


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

I will say having balistics on the side like you do is about the best thing you can do to a rifle! Takes all the guess work out! Teamed with a range finder and it is :sniper: !


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Because I have so many rifles and am always working on new loads, I would be lost w/o my ballistics program and the charts I put on the stocks. Note the size of it; my 51 year old near vision ain't what it used to be!...

Squared, Toni's sister isn't like her. Kind of a lovable west coast type flake, really. She knows what firearms are but thinks they are cold & slimy to the touch...

Taddy, we are all looking forward to some late season roosters. This deer season has been hard on the dogs as they haven't gotten the exercise & training they are used to. My older lab Josie took it in stride & chilled, but my young lab Sunny is wired differently and inactivity drives her nuts...

BTW, the neighbor on whose land I shot this buck has been hunting a "big" one they have been watching and I thought The E-Buck might have been it. When we told them about this buck they were happy for me and said they knew this buck and allowed as he was a "nice" deer, but said the one they have been after is considerably larger. I believe them, in years past I've seen a couple bucks on their land I'm sure would go into the 170's. They'll be hunting in there this morning and we got the OK to hunt a piece across the road to fill our doe tags. So being, maybe we'll see the big guy and get to help recover him...


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## nmubowyer (Sep 11, 2007)

nice buck congrats


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

NDT, do you have any more pics of your buck?


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

> a lovable west coast type flake, really. She knows what firearms are but thinks they are cold & slimy to the touch...


Alrighty then....I'll cross her off my list ! :wink:

Thanks for the info.


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

I don't think my wife took any that are substantially different than these two pics, Sapper, but I'll check. Why do you ask?...


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

Just like to see some other angles on him


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## minime (Nov 29, 2005)




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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Either my wife Toni or brother in law Ron posted a pic that I don't have. Thats' the angle I had when I first saw him. A basket rack doesn't allow an easy estimate of main beam length, but the unusually long left 1 & both 2's & 3's were a dead giveway that this was a darn good shooter...

BTW, one more time hardcore scent control & scent lok clothing proved itself to me. I don't think a person can completely eliminate scent, but it can be supressed to the point game doesn't spook at what little they do detect. This buck was 100 yards straight downwind, and didn't have a clue I was in town. Earlier that morning I had a doe walk within 30 yards of me that didn't alert to my presence...


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## minime (Nov 29, 2005)

It was me, your wife. What NDTerminator failed to mention about this buck was that I gained him permission to hunt on land adjacent to a farm that is locked tight and known to hold some of the biggest deer in the DL area. I think he owes me........


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

Great deer NDT, you better thank your wife for getting the go-ahead too,


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## AdamFisk (Jan 30, 2005)

Very nice deer NDT.....Congrats!!! And a good story to boot.


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## dosch (May 20, 2003)

Nice deer. Did your neighbors get the one they were after??


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

I don't know but I don't think so. We were sitting & watching for does Sunday morning across the road from where I shot this buck, which was where they were hunting. They apparently did hit a buck which we watched cross the road and travel the better part of half mile across the harvested field, and go into the shelter belt behind their house. The buck was a long ways away so we couldn't see his headgear. They were tracking him when we left the area but I haven't heard if they got him. 
He had a big standing cornfield to hide in on the other side of the belt and he was moving well, so I'm not optomistic.

A short while after seeing that buck, we had one that would probably go into the mid 130s walk by us at maybe 150 yards. 300 yards away there were three road shooters all parked abreast on the road talking so loudly we could clearly hear them. This buck crossed the road within 150 yards of them onto some other posted land and they never saw him. Stupid road shooters... :eyeroll:

There were so many road shooters doing laps around this property yesterday morning that we should have called an SO deputy out to do traffic control... :roll:


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## bretts (Feb 24, 2004)

Awesome buck, I don't wanna take anything away from this hunt what so ever, but if I were to guess I'd say he's an awesome 2 1/2 yr old judging from his body size, face etc. Looks like you got yourself some great genetics in that area! Congrats again


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

bretts said:


> Awesome buck, I don't wanna take anything away from this hunt what so ever, but if I were to guess I'd say he's an awesome 2 1/2 yr old judging from his body size, face etc. Looks like you got yourself some great genetics in that area! Congrats again


NO WAY! At least 3.5


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## bretts (Feb 24, 2004)

IDK, agree to disagree ha, this would be a great deer to have someone age. I am really curious to see what the age is...


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## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

> There were so many road shooters doing laps around this property yesterday morning that we should have called an SO deputy out to do traffic control...


Sarge, you should have. He was out catching some people hunting posted land in that general area any way!!! It was kinda sickening that when I pulled up behind their pickup in mine, their front tire was about 3 inches from the posted sign they had kicked over.

We had 6 trucks drive past the place we were hunting last night in just the last 10 min of legal shooting light. Only heard 1 shot though.

I must say you have one heck of a wife!!! Rifle for a wedding gift, access to land, and just puttin up with you, WOW!!!! 

By the way, great deer! I missed you by about 2 minutes at the LEC the other day.


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

Your dedication is amazing! What a wonderful trophy to end the quest. Congratulations NDT!
Burl


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

I might allow this guy to be as young as 3.5, but I'm inclined to stick with my initial guess of 4.5. For sure he's a fully mature buck, but not an old one.

Last year while rifle hunting does & bowhunting on this property, we saw two bucks that I'm sure would go into the 170's, and a couple more in the class of this one. While sitting in just about exactly the same spot as I shot this year's buck, Toni & I had a 5 point walk by at about 50 yards that I'm certain would have gone in the mid-high 150's and probably shaded the E-Buck by a fair a bit. Got to undergo the torture of glassing & watching him for better than 10 minutes with a doe tag in my pocket (couldn't of shot anyway as I only had permission to take a buck with my bow). He then walked directly under my bowhunting stand and worked a scrape. I had every intention of bowhunting that stand for him in the morning but he was shot that afternoon almost under it by the landowner's brother. The gut pile was maybe 20 yards from the stand!

You want to see an old warrior past his prime, go check out the pic of the one my wife arrowed over on the Bowhunting Forum. Only grosses 127 and doesn't have tine or main beam length to speak of, but man alive is the mass impressive!


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## nomrcy (Jul 14, 2005)

Great buck Jon! Congrats!


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Nice buck,Jon.....way to go.Persistence pays off. :beer:


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

It's good to hear a story where persistence is rewarded in the end. Maybe this story can teach some people that putting in the time will actually pay off.

Great story and trophy...


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