King’s Outdoor World Blog

253 Archery Buck to Get You Excited

August 15th, 2008 David King - King's Outdoor World

The archery season is here. Nevada has already put down some good bucks so far as one of the states to kick off archery season early. Other states are getting geared up for this weekend. I thought I would get the fever going a little bit and post some photos and this story of one of the great non-typical archery velvet mule deer ever taken with a bow.

This buck was taken by David Bodine in 2006. This Colorado buck scores 253 gross and 243 net non-typical as a 11×11 point. He is just 25-inches wide as well. Here is his story….enjoy and good luck this archery season. See more great photos in our Trophy Room Gallery.

Huge 253 Velvet Archery Buck
by David Bodine

The night before the hunt I went to bed not sure if I was going hunting in the morning. Don’t get me wrong , I am a very enthusiastic hunter and anxiously anticipate opening day all year but this year I had a friend coming from out of town to go hunting with me who couldn’t make it ’till the following week. When 3:00 A.M. came around I was wide awake and by 4:00 I was on my way. I called my hunting partner Travis Farmer. He and his father Tom met me at “the” hunting spot and shortly after we were hiking in. The weather was perfect, there was a light rain and the clouds were very low, almost foggy, and it was very cool for a late August day. I knew this kind of weather would keep the deer a little more active further into the day.

We hiked about two miles and had our first sighting. A small herd with a nice 4 point and a few smaller bucks and a couple of does. After a short stalk they spooked and were gone. We decided to split up and go up separate canyons. We wished each other good luck and were off. Just a few hundred yards up the canyon I glassed two big bucks feeding. They were about half a mile away on the opposite slope. I decided to cross the canyon and position my self so that I could sneak up to them at a side hill approach. Once I was within about 150 yards I took off my rain coat and pack and began a very slow and stealthy stock. By this time they had bedded on the western facing slope. I crouched below the bush line and closed the distance to about 40 yards. I came to a small draw on the hillside, they were right on the other side. I knew I would have to take my shot from this side, so I began to contemplate what to do. I sat with the wind in my face for what seemed to be an hour, but was more like five minutes. I knew I had two choices. Since I didn’t have a shot from where I was because of the brush in front of the deer I could either blow my call, standing the deer up and trying a shot that way. Or, I could move down the hill about five yards opening a shooting lane and taking the deer in the bed. Just as I decided to move down the hill. The wind changed and was at my back.

His ears perked up, he began to stare in my direction. I quickly sprayed cover sent into the air which seemed to buy me the time I needed and calmed the deer. I slowly made my way down the hill undetected to the spot where I had a clear shot. I drew back, let the arrow fly hit my mark at about 38 yards. The deer jumped up and ran over the top of the hill out of sight. I walked to where he was bedded. My arrow had broke off in his lungs. The blood trail was thick, but this deer was strong. I waited a while then followed the blood trail over the hill. Half way down the hill I saw my deer. A couple of more arrows finally finished him off. There I stood over the most amazing deer I had ever seen.

I hadn’t really mentioned the size of this deer before. I took the first shot having no clue what I was shooting at. I knew he was big but the view I had before I shot he looked like a 5×6. When I finally had him down and was able to count all the points I couldn’t believe that I had shot a 9 x10 amazing beast of a buck. After a moment of enjoying the kill that lie before me I went to meet up with Travis and I called my wife Jessica to come and take pictures. When Travis and I approached my buck,Travis began counting the points. He announced with excitement that I had bagged an 11×11 buck. I was in awe, and couldn’t believe that my buck was getting bigger every time the points were counted. We then begun the task of dragging the deer down to the trail which wasn’t a walk in the park considering the big boy we had in tow. Regardless of the work the reward is every bit worth it.

God had truly blessed me with a wonderful trophy and has blessed us all with a wonderful trophy called America and the freedom of the great outdoors that we all have the opportunity to enjoy. I would like to thank my family for all the outdoor experiences we had together especially for my father, taking me on my first deer hunt and for my brothers and all the times we hunted together. My 25-wide buck ended up scoring 253 gross and 243 net non-typical and is one of the top velvet bucks taken with a bow.

Entry Filed under: News and Stuff, Buck Alert!