Deer Down

So, I was hoping to go out opening morning deer hunting. But Bobbie was working and I was not able to make it. I figured it was okay since there are several weeks during the season. But the next week on the 9th I called up my friend Trevor and asked if I could try my luck. Thanks to him, I was able to land this beauty. I have not had him scored yet, I do not know how to score this freaky looking rack. I am having this beast shoulder-mounted and the guy doing it gave me some pointers an what gets measured. I hope he can score it for me though.

Everyone who has seen it says it is one freaky looking deer. Which makes me feel even better about deciding to get it mounted. Some of the guys at the taxidermy shop were saying it may be as old as 6 years, which is really old for a deer. He was really heavy. It took me an hour to get him into the back of my truck by myself. I tried three separate techniques. The first was just grabbing him by the antlers and pulling him up and into the bed-that wasn't going to happen! The second one I tried was tying a heavy rope around his antlers, throwing it over an oak branch, tying it to my truck and hoisting him in the air. Once in the air I would untie it from my truck and hold onto the rope hoping there was enough friction to allow me to secure it to the tree. I got a minor rope burn out of that hair-brained plan. The next plan was to keep the rope on and use my tail-gate as a ramp and drag the deer up into the truck. This was quite a struggle. I thought I was going to slip and fall several times. I almost lost the deer a few times as well.
Sunrise is about 0651, so I wanted to be in the stand about 0545, and I was. At about 0700 I spotted a doe in the heavy fog. I could barely see her silhouette without binoculars. With binos I could see legs and her head and ears, every detail. The fog was very thick off and on. There is a corn feeder underneath a big oak tree, but the doe was eating the plentiful serving of acorns the trees were providing. When does are out, they are very skittish and will get spooked by anything. They are a good sign of a buck coming. I watched her for about 30 minutes or so. I was looking off another direction and then back and I couldn't see her. By this time the sun had broken through the clouds and the fog was beginning to burn off. I put up my binos and searched for her, but she was gone. In the past, this means a coyote is coming, or a buck is coming, or some more does are coming, or they are dumb and ran for unknown reasons, etc. So, I brought my binos down and scanned the area to see what it was that spooked that doe. About 40ft straight left of where the doe was, about 40yrds away from me, was this beautiful buck. He was standing still, staring in the direction the doe was just previously at. He was facing toward me, and a tree was blocking his right shoulder. But I could see his entire neck. I grabbed my rifle and looked through the scope. It was on 3, too far away. I moved it to 6, still too far. I moved it to 9. Ok, now where to shoot? I thought: should I wait 'til he moves broadside? Should I wait for a better angle? No, what if he runs? I'll just shoot him in the neck. So I did, and he dropped right on the spot.