Dave's first buck ever - 9/23/97

Details: Twelve points, atypical - 5 on the left, 7 on the right. Inside spread as measured by John Roberts was about 19 inches -- I was too excited to confirm. Dressed weight was 192 pounds.

The shot was from about 15 yards at 7:00 pm, just 11 minutes before closing. I was 12 feet up a poplar tree, and the deer was just under an apple tree, having just jumped a fence from a soy bean field. I first saw this deer two years ago to the day (checked my journal) from the day I shot him. Hunted him all that season (only saw him once more that year), and wasn't sure he was still around until I saw him during the early, doe-only gun season in '96. I had no idea he had made it through another year until I actually recovered him. There was no time at the moment of the shot to know exactly what the rack looked like, but when I found and tagged him, there was no doubt this was the deer I'd hunted for two years. Wow! What luck! My very first buck with either gun or bow, and a real trophy. The moment I found him, I dropped to one knee and thanked the Lord that he had died quickly and that I had been able to find him. While gutting him I found the cross-bow bolt (arrow) had not only taken both lungs, but the top chambers of the heart as well. Couldn't have been a better or cleaner kill -- I thanked the Lord again, as my hands were shaking too much to have made such a shot without a lot of help!