I Rather be Lucky than Good

Another great weekend , but this one had lots of events from the start . A few miles from the entrance to the WMA , in the middle of my lane were 2 big hogs , luckily I saw them and swerved and avoided ramming and damaging my truck . We checked in a headed to our spot . The plan was to wait till daylight in an area last weekend I had seen a big buck with a doe right at daylight . We waited for an hour and nothing . Well since in my usual spot I hunt not much action happened the weekend before it was time for a new game plan . We drove to a few areas and walked a while , saw a small illegal buck 25 yards from us and never paid attention to us . Drove to a small oak strand and figured at least we can get on hogs and get my buddy on his first muzzleloader kill . Only a hundred yards in I see movement in a palmetto clump . I tell him to ease in slowly and be ready for a close shot . I was ready just incase . As he moved in the wind changed and the hogs got alerted , he had no shot and I was waiting for him to shot and all the sudden they bolted out , I raised my muzzle and as soon as one come into view BOOM , cloud of smoke and I can't see my pig . Reloaded and he says there a pig just standing there . I told him thats the one I shot , shoot em in the head . He fires and pig drops . I had shot him through the lungs and he was about to drop but a quick follow up shot from him secured any tracking . Well I had one down and back to the truck , got him gutted and in the cooler . 90 Lbs Boar , 20 yard running shot .

Back on the road to do a little late morning scouting . Drove a while and saw some does heading to some nearby oaks . The rut is just beggining so eventually a buck is gonna be trailing . Drove down a trail and I see something on the side of the trail that looked like a deer bedded so I stopped . I walked around the truck and looked and there's a 3 point bedded 10 feet from me . I though he was injured or shot , I walked up to it thinking it would get up and run , but why didn't he run as we passed next to him . I walked right up to him and he wouldn't move . I tapped him with my boots and nothing , finally I reached down and grabbed him by the antler and he just stayed there no fight . I got my Gopro and filmed some and he finally got up kinda stumbling and walked in a cypress head and bedded 20 feet in the water . I got the # of the lady working the checkstation and called her and told her about what I had seen . She said she would call LEO and inform and she would get back to me . We kept going and about 2 hours later got a call that an officer was on his way if we could show where the deer was . We met the officer and went to where the buck was . He was still there , I showed her and we walked in . She took some pics and determined to dispatch to examine incase of any disease or wounds . She asked if could put inback of my tuck and take to the checkstation I said no problem . The head was removed and we gutted it to see if any internal bleedind or anything weird . All we could see some purple marks inside the skin like impact from another buck ramming him . Also had a gash behind the back of the skull where it meets the vertabrae . After more pics the lady in the checkstation she said we can either keep it or throw in the gut pile . I told her we would keep it . Well just be carefull if you are gonna eat it , I told her I would give some to my neighbor first and wait a couple days , LOL . After skinning it we noticed lots of small blood clots that looked like whe he was hit by another buck with it's rack . Well so far this has been an eventfull day . Back on the road again to finally setup treestands , got em setup but decided not to hunt the afternoon there , wind was blowing about 20 miles and was blowing in the wrong way . I decided we should drive around and it was 5 ish and game movement would pick up . As I was heading to an area that I had seen lots of hog sign , maybe my buddy could get one . I turned a corner and see a doe bout 40 yards from the road next to a flagpond , next to her all I saw was a big body and big antlers . I kept driving a few yards to a small palmetto clump and stopped and jumped out the truck . As soon as I had them in view , the doe was moving away and he turned his head and looked right at me . The only shot I had was a rear shot before he bolted . I decided to take the shot , Boom cloud of smoke I quickly reloaded and I see the buck slowly walking away hurt so all I had was a shot through the pines at his ribs Boom and he just walked a few steps and stood there , reloaded again I think I had a gatling gun instead of a muzzleloader . He finally moved a few steps and I settled on his shoulder and Boom , now he jumps and takes off WTF !!!!!!!!!! . Reached in my pockett and reloaded again and I see him drop about 80 yards away , man my heart was going 100 mph . I was walking up to him shaking and he was done , Holy Craps I couldn't believe how this happened . My buddy finally made it over and asked how big he was , I told him it's a stud . I was still shaking and thanking God for this moment . Then the usual , pics , dragging and loaded him and off again looking for hogs . My buddy heard some hogs but couldn't seal the deal . Stud 8 , 155 lbs , and after all the days event I still had my CHIT together .