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Buck #55

Hunter:    Mike Lindquist               

Score:     72 1/8"

Points:     7 points

Weight:    unknown

Date:        November 21, 1998

Location:  Northern Minnesota

Method:    6mm bolt

After hunting fairly hard (13 out of 16 days), my luck finally paid off.  It had been six years since I had shot a buck.  On the last weekend of the season, I had been jockeying back and forth between two stands.  It seemed like every time I chose one, I'd see fresh deer tracks pass under the other. It got pretty frustrating.  I finally guessed right on Saturday morning.  Around 11:30 am, I was considering getting down and heading in for lunch.  "Another 15 minutes," I thought to myself, hoping for some noon-hour activity.  Just then, this buck came barreling through the woods towards my stand.  He was moving!  Within seconds, I shouldered my gun and squeezed off a 50 yard running shot.  A clean miss, but the buck froze in his tracks.  I locked in on his neck and fired another shot.  He dropped to his knees and then stumbled for ten yards or so and stopped.  A few minutes passed and I began to hear Matt and Brian approaching through the dense cedars from where the buck came.  They heard the shots and were on his trail.  As they neared my stand, the buck got up again and started running off.  I fired another shot at the neck and he immediately went down again.  Matt and Brian approached the deer but it still wasn't down for the count.  Matt put another round in the neck at close range.  This time the buck was done.

After examining the entry wounds, we only found evidence of two bullet holes in the neck - even though I think I hit the deer twice and Matt shot it once.  One of the holes was obviously Matt's shot at close range because it was on the opposite side as my shots.  To this day, it is considered an unsolved mystery in our hunting party.  I think that two bullets went in the same hole.  Matt thinks that I missed the third time I shot but the buck went down at the same time by coincidence.  Bizarre.

Notes:  This buck had a basic 8-point frame, but didn't grow the left brow tine.