The Big Buck

So November 4th is my birthday (the big 18, I know I'm old...)  and it's also usually prime time whitetail deer rut!  I woke up bright and early on saturday to get in stand for an almost birthday hunt.  I sat for a good hour until i finally saw a deer.  A small spike with only one side of his rack, he ended up walking within 3 yards of my stand.  He walked off having no idea i was there!  In three years maybe he'll be big enough!  then at 8:00 am I caught movement about 80 yards to my right.  I turned and immediately saw that the deer had antlers and i started to get my hopes up thinking that maybe this is one of the big bucks we have picture of from our trail cameras.   As he came closer I didn't really recognize him, but I did see that he was probably a shooter!   As he came closer i figured that he was about 21" inside spread but not very tall, but being that wide I figure he would score pretty well and i knew i wanted to shoot him!

He came out of the brush at about 19 yards and walked on the way past my stand broadside and i took the shot at 18 yards.  I got a complete pass thru and had a very good shot!  He ran about 20 yards and i watched him drop.

After getting him back to the house I grabbed the measuring tape and the inside spread was 23 7/8" which is almost 3 inches bigger than I had thought!!!  After doing a rough score on him I got 151 1/2" and a typical score of 140!  Which makes him qualify for Pope & Young record books.
He is the 2nd Pope & Young I've shot and is my biggest buck so far!

Now for some trib fishing!  Hopefully I can keep the luck that I've been having and catch a few nice lake run trout!