50bowhunter
Active member
I grew up hunting the National Forest here in Virginia. Killed my first nice buck there in 1997 with a muzzleloader. Over the last 20 years, the deer population has drastically declined in the mountains, and you could go a week without seeing a deer, no matter how far you were willing to walk. Well the population has slowly started to come back causing me to work a little harder to find those good out of the way spots. This past August I put a trail cam at the head of a hollow about 1 1/2 miles from the road. The first picture I got was the biggest buck i've ever gotten a picture of. A huge main frame 6x6, almost unheard of in the mountains of VA. I also had pictures of several nice 8 points.
Flash forward to this past Tuesday. Time hadn't been on my side to hunt this area, and my dad being 64 doesn't like to hunt this place on his own. Its the 3rd day of general firearms season. About 45 minutes after daylight, I hear a dear walking and spot antlers coming down the ridge. After letting him come on in, I dumped a very respectable mountain 8 point with my Tikka 7mm-08. After gathering gear, I started to take some pictures when I heard my Dad shoot down the hollow. I quickly finished and drug my buck out the drainage to my dad. He said he shot at a huge buck, he believed to have at least 10 points. Dad was shooting the rifle he killed his first deer with in 1970, a Remington 722 257 Roberts. We found a blood trail and 50 yards later found the buck of a lifetime, the big 6x6. I have never experience anything like this in the outdoors. Dad has never killed a "big" buck, and seeing 47 years of hunting emotion come out was more than I could control on the side of the mountain. I said 3 months ago when I first got pictures of the 6x6, that in a perfect world, I would kill one of the 8's, and dad would kill the big guy. Well, I'm living in a perfect world right now.
Flash forward to this past Tuesday. Time hadn't been on my side to hunt this area, and my dad being 64 doesn't like to hunt this place on his own. Its the 3rd day of general firearms season. About 45 minutes after daylight, I hear a dear walking and spot antlers coming down the ridge. After letting him come on in, I dumped a very respectable mountain 8 point with my Tikka 7mm-08. After gathering gear, I started to take some pictures when I heard my Dad shoot down the hollow. I quickly finished and drug my buck out the drainage to my dad. He said he shot at a huge buck, he believed to have at least 10 points. Dad was shooting the rifle he killed his first deer with in 1970, a Remington 722 257 Roberts. We found a blood trail and 50 yards later found the buck of a lifetime, the big 6x6. I have never experience anything like this in the outdoors. Dad has never killed a "big" buck, and seeing 47 years of hunting emotion come out was more than I could control on the side of the mountain. I said 3 months ago when I first got pictures of the 6x6, that in a perfect world, I would kill one of the 8's, and dad would kill the big guy. Well, I'm living in a perfect world right now.
