We did catch up with them late the next morning after we bummed some wheels from Jim. The weather was rainy and cool and didn't make for a good day at all. I guess that me and Tim sleeping in didn't help any. When we found Russ and his Dad they were already back from the woods and having a snack at the truck this was about 11am. We wanted to let them know what happened to us the night before. After shooting the breeze for a while we had to get Jims Jimmy back to him and pick up Tim's truck at the tire shop in Quincy. Tim and I returned to Talquin with about 45 min of daylight left to hunt we decided to just stalk around a bit. We saw nothing that evening. The next morning we were invited to hunt Jims 3 1/2 mile hunt club as well as lifetime friend Dougs ranch and we were not going to turn that down. That morning I saw one doe and Tim saw nothing but it was a bit nasty as far as the weather cold, rain and wind. That evening I hunted at Doug's and saw two does, one yearling and one spike and again poor Tim saw nothing.

The next morning it was cold and there was ice everywhere. Tim got up on time and after several attempts to get me out of bed I said "hold on I'm coming" I really wanted to sleep.. We got out late 6:55am thanks to me, we got to the ranch about 7:05 and I got to my ground blind around 7:15 I emptied my pockets with all the junk I carried out with me I then fired up the propane heater "it was cold". At 7:22am I looked down to the food plot and seen a big body deer standing there I looked in the scope and it looked like a doe, but when the deer put its head down to feed I saw a forked antler and put the scope on the sweet spot and let one rip. The front end of the deer dropped to the ground as he ran to the thicket. I waited as long as I could and went to look for blood I found none not one drop by then I saw Tim coming around the corner, as he was coming to me I thought I heard the deer crashing around right out in front of me about 30 yards so Tim was headed to the cross roads as I went in to look for my buck I walked in about 30 yards in the thickest brush I have been in since I hog hunted in Perry Florida and I saw his back end sticking out of some briars. I said to Tim "I got him" then I saw the rack I was so excited I put the BLR down and started to dance and I meen that I was dancing. As Tim got closer I saw his eyes get as big around as silver dollars and he gave me the traditional hug and back slap. This was truly the biggest buck I have ever shot he was 167 pounds he had seven points and the inside spread was 16 inches. We took about 100 pics or it seemed like it at the time and it took two attempts for us to get him in Tim's high rider Toyota 4X4.

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We headed back to the house for the skinning and quartering and took more photos, we wanted to show my uncle the deer because he was leaving at 8:30am to head to the mountains for a camping trip we made it back just in time to show him the buck I killed sitting in his blind.
We didn't stop there we still had to get Tim his buck so the next morning we sat together in a ground box and we saw two doe and a good buck past through an opening about 100 yards from us but he was there and gone before Tim could grab the rifle, this boy was as big as the one I shot. Well that evening we went to Doug's place (my cousin) and I saw several deer I watched 2 spikes and several does feed and play for hours and again poor Tim saw nothing, but the next morning would change his luck on seeing deer.

We again headed to Doug's place and I saw 4 does with a 6 point that I could have shot several times, but I passed not wanting to be greedy 5 min. later out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement it was a big buck crossing the trail he was gone before I knew he was there, I waited for him to pop out in the food plot in front of me but he never showed. After waiting about 2 hours and taking about all the cold and wind I could take I started to head for the truck I was within 200 yards of the truck when I heard a shot between me and where the truck was. I knew it was Tim, I made it to him and I said where is he? and he said I don't know if I hit him but he was a good antlered deer. After he pointed out to me where he shot at the deer I walked to the spot and seen a good blood trail, after following the blood to just a drop here and there we started to find small chunks of meat in white hair to me it was the sign of a low shot. We looked for 6 hours and never found it Doug even came out with his trail dog Winchester and we could never find it hopefully he will survive so we can get him on our trip up next month.

It was a fun 5 days being with friends like Russ & his Dad and then spending a few days
with family made it well worth it. And I got to come home with a cooler full
of venison to put the icing on the cake.
A special thanks to Jim & Alice Helm, the entire Stiles Family and Russ and Homer Chastain for making this one heck of a hunting trip to Gadsden/Leon Counties.

Ken Banaciski
Photo By (Tim Sirois)
Photo By Jim Helm

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