Ol' Crooked Horns

 

I was hunting a ground blind on the edge of a soybean field with a small lot of oaks separating it from the swamp behind my lake. I only went to this stand because it hadn't been hunted yet and I was late getting in and this site proved to be easy access without disturbing anything going to it.

I got in the blind, which is a natural blind around 4pm, at 5pm a nice doe walked out from the back edge of the field and started browsing on the soybeans. After about 20 minutes she seemed to be browsing toward me so I stood up and readied my bow, hoping for some freezer meat. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement from a group of deer that had snuck out in the field to my right while I was watching the doe. I watched them for 30 seconds browse out toward the doe when out of the corner of my eye from the same direction I see a big body walking toward the corner of the woods where I was standing.

I couldn't tell what it was at this point cause the light was getting low, all I knew was it was pretty big and if it presented a shot I was taking it! It turned at 20 yards and gave me a high shot through the fork of a tree so I stood on my tip-toes and drew and let it fly. Hoping for a high lung shot I ended up spining the deer and it dropped right there! When I realized that it couldn't get to its feet I came out from behind the blind and laid another one in to end its suffering. Still not knowing what I had shot I waited till I thought it had expired and went to see. To my amazement it was a 12 point. A 5x5 with 2 kickers on the right side. The horns are rather dark which is why I couldn't see them in the low light.