Finally did it! My late muzzy buck!

It has been a tough year for me. I while bow hunting I passed up a couple of really good deer as I was hunting a couple GIANTS I filmed in the early season. I even saw them from the bow stand on two occasions. However, as my year progressed I felt like I really messed up and should have taken the opportunities I had.
While hunting in Ill I ended up shooting at a hog and missing. When I finally got reloaded and took another shot off the hip I ended up shooting a different buck. A much smaller one than I was after. Still a fun hunt. Was able to kill a doe there as well on the last day.
Then in to the 1st and second gun seasons home in IA.. I could hunt both on my land owners tag. During 1st season I missed a really nice 8 pt at 25 yds. He was a super buck. I hit the one and only limb (twig) between me and him making for a clean miss. Never even touched a hair on him. A real bummer. Then I never saw a buck worth shooting second season. I did try to shot a doe to make my self feel better on the second to last day of second season only to slightly wound her and was unable to recover the animal. That really made me sick. Went home, shot my gun again. IT WAS NOT THE GUN!
Well, Late season Muzzle loader was upon me and the weather turned terrible. Sleet/rain mixture made it miserable first part of the season. But things looked up as I had spotted a really good buck from the road. Neighbors had confirmed my sightings of this nice deer. I even had a chance to shoot him one night after the weather changed again and turned to snow/blizzard conditions. It would have been a long shot and the way my year had been going I chose to wait. I also thought he would come closer presenting me with a much better shot. WRONG, the big buck continued right on and I never saw him again… Until a week or so later. I continued to check these areas on the way home from work. There he was again, crossing the road about 4:30 a quarter mile away. I called the land owner and got permission. The next night the wind was perfect, I took a couple hours of Vacation and was set. I was about to park and make my walk to my new spot to hunt and I thought I should drive by the area prior to going in. Glad I did, as I got there a guy was pulling in to the property to cut fire wood. A real bummer, but par for the coarse. I then opted to hunt in the section just across from my house where I have been seeing allot of deer, just not the BIG buck I was after. The wind was right for this spot as well. It was on a BIG hill in an open field except for power poles with a little brush around it. I put my whites on under my orange with all my cold weather gear to sit on an open knob with no cover at 6 degrees with wind gusts of 25 miles per hour and the temp was dropping. Luckily the small amount of brush made a BIG snow drift and I stopped it down and put my lawn chair in the middle of it. As I sat in the lawn chair the snow was above my waist making the perfect blind. I could see my house from where I was sitting 100yds or so off the road. I felt naked on top of that hill, but it was not long before I had deer running 10-30 yds from me. I did get busted and the field cleared as a group of deer circled me 360 degrees and got my wind. With only 15minutes or so left of season left I thought my hunt was over. Then the deer started rolling in. The field was again covered with deer from 300-150 yds away from me except for one lone doe walking right up by me as the last deer had. Then out of the brush came a great buck about 200 yds away. As luck would have it, the buck spotted the doe up by me and came to her on a string. He closed the distance to 40+ yds and my bullet hit its make. After many hours hunting in unbelievably cold and nasty weather I closed with a great deer. He is one of the biggest I have had the opportunity to harvest. He grossed 156. 26+ main beams, 18.5”wide, 11.5 GS, 10+” G3s with allot of character. This all happened Friday the 8th of January. Then Sunday a friend (Clint O day) came over to fill the last of our doe tags and I shot a skin head on video. The footage is great for our first time doing it. And I filmed him later with his bow as he attempted to take a doe as well. It was a great time. I know the story is long, but I could have added more. Hope I did not bore anyone.
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Awesome story man. Congrats on one heck of a buck!!!

Congrats. Great story and thats an awesome buck.

Congrats on a great buck man

Bore anyone? Are you kidding me? I am not a book reader but I can read hunting stories like that all day long. Thanks for typing it all out. Congrats on a great deer. Gotta love when your persistance pays off and you deal with a little adversity. Well done!

Awesome buck great story.

Nice buck big sexy and congrats!!

congrats on a great deer. Way to go

Congrats nice buck

Great story and congrats on a stud

I agree 100% with Dave. What a story and what a great buck. Congrats.

Great Buck Buddy, Congrats
Awesome story aswell

Great buck, way to get things done.

congratulations.

Congrats, that is a nice trophy! And it means a lot more when you have to hunt him hard like that!

Awesome buck...Congrats

Great Buck BS. Are you planning on hunting here again in Illinois next year?

Sounds to me like that buck was worth waiting on. I love reading me a good deer story. Great buck and a great story. Congrats!