A shed hunting trip that turned into the recovery of a giant 8 point buck… March 22, 2014 turned out to be a day that I won’t soon forget. I planned on shed hunting a farm behind my house that I could cover while on the four wheeler. With the weather being in the low twenties I took off from my house an covered more than 160 acres of prime deer country. Not finding even one shed had me worried, I had stayed out of this area for weeks. See I know that I have great winter cover and food and had seen many bucks from my backyard for weeks with many of them still carrying antlers. I figured that possibly someone had slipped in without the landowner or I knowing. I just feel that there had to be more sheds to be had.
I had been watching at least four bucks over the passed few weeks that were still carrying full sets. But in a few days I no longer saw any antlers so I knew it was time. Not finding any sheds had me a little upset to say the least. So I decided to check out a deep ditch that ran the full length of the timber behind my house an sure enough I finally spotted a giant shed laying in the bottom of the ditch.
After finally working my way down to the bottom of this ditch I saw the match to the antler I first saw. As I walked up I noticed that the right antler had been shed from this deer but the other side was still connected to the skull of this magnificent animal. The skull was bleached white an I can only speculate how this deer died. Either way I was happy to find this deer but then so bit of sadness started to creep in on me. After all you don’t ever want to find a buck like this dead. When I returned home I cleaned it all up an glued the other side back on. I put a tape to this deer an he ended up scoring 151 7/8 as a typical 8 point, a true Monster Raxx. He is now part of my skull mount collection. Not the story that I would of wished for a deer like this but at least I have him to show people an tell the story.
Now time for some turkey hunting. Iowa’s youth turkey season is right around the corner an my six year old son Drake is itching to kill his first turkey. So the prepping has started an I hope I can bring the video of his hunt to all the viewers of Victory Outdoors.