TN Eight Point

by Jake
(TN)

I got up early opening day of rifle season
and set up on the ridge where I'd been hunting most of muzzleloader season. From there I could see over in two valleys. Well, around 7:30 I saw a big coyote in one valley so I slipped down the hill after him, about halfway down the hill I realized I wasn't gonna get a shot at him so I stopped to rest. After sitting there for a few minutes I noticed a deer coming my way about 500 yards away. But at first glance I thought he was that four point I'd been trying to get my brother a shot at but the more he came the bigger he got so I got set up for him. About halfway to me he veered off into some woods so I started trying to figure out where he was going when I noticed a doe going across the ridge where I was earlier. So I started back up the hill after her figuring that that's where he was going but after I was close to the top here he came out of the woods right were I was just minutes ago. I dropped in a heartbeat and set up for the shot. He came within 100 yards of where I had been and stopped. He smelled where I'd been and decided that he'd had enough and ran for the woods. I popped off a shot and missed. He stopped to see where that noise came from and broadsided so I fired again and gut shot him. He tried to get away so I fired 2 more shots to stop him. One got him in the back leg and the other missed. He got off in the woods and struggled through them so I gave him a few more minutes and called my dad and we started tracking for over a hundred yards we followed a blood trail and he stopped bleeding so we had to give up. Later that day I told a neighbor up the road about what happened with my deer. About an hour or two later he came by and said that his brother-in-law had found my deer and for me to come pick it up. We didn't miss him by much but for some reason he had quit bleeding and crossed a field but I sure was happy to get him. I told my folks it was better then Christmas. Well here he is my TN eight point the biggest deer I ever killed.