Last minute ML 8-pointer

My 2024 deer hunting started pretty good, with a mature doe killed, at my parents place, on the first day of the early antlerless gun season.  It went downhill after that though , with not too many deer sightings and several misses, when I finally did see them.  
 

My first encounter with this buck was on opening day of SZ crossbow season.  I had passed a chip shot at a scrawny 3-pointer at sunrise, mostly because I had to be at my nephews wedding in a couple hours.   About 15 minutes later, this one pranced by, head up, at about 75 yards.  40 yards is my maximum effective range with my Barnett recruit crossbow.
 

My next encounter with him came on the next Sunday morning, when I tried to squeeze in a quick hunt before church from my pop up blind.  I had placed that in a patch of sweetcorn,  just across the creek, the week before.  
 

I had cut some shooting lanes in the corn, but apparently not enough, because my 40 yard shot thru a mesh window at him must have been deflected by a corn stalk and missed him clean.  He trotted off with his tail straight out and paused for a few seconds, before calmly walking thru the back hedge row.  
 

I had my worst SZ gun season ever, not seeing any deer at all until the last Sunday evening.  I was up in my front hedgerow poplar tree blind when a doe stepped out into an awp/wheat/clover plot, 120 yards away, 10 minutes past sunset.  Her head was down feeding, and she was quartering to me. 
 

I cranked the scope up to 7x on my Marlin 512 12 gauge bolt action slug gun, settled the crosshairs on her shoulder blade, and squeezed off the shot from a very good rest up in my blind.  She trotted off with her tail up, about 30 yards, then calmly walked thru the hedgerow and out of view.  No blood no hair and no hit again.
 

 I finally made contact with a deer later that week, when a doe ran into my passenger side fender on my drive to work, putting the first dent in my spotless Chevy suv.  
 

We spent the first weekend of late ML season up in the NZ at my in-laws place, where I saw some tracks in the snow but no deer.    We got back in time for me to make a short hunt from my barn blind Sunday evening.  

After suffering my first ever car deer damage, I wasn’t going to miss any chance at killing one.  I hurried home after work on Monday, and got up into my poplar tree blind about 25 minutes before sunrise.  I stayed up there until 30 minutes later, but didn’t see anything.  
 
I was getting frustrated by the last day of ML, but the fresh dent on my fender provided additional motivation for me to get back out there until the fat lady sang.  I made it home from work a little earlier, and got up into my poplar tree blind 40 minutes before sunset.     
 

At 5 minutes to sunset, my neighbor shot at a big doe.  I texted him “what did you get”.  I was pretty sure he connected because he had killed (2) bucks and a doe back there since the start of archery season. 
 

There was no reply.  At one minute to sunset, my 8-pointer stepped out into the awp/wheat/clover plot, 120 yards away.  He stood like a statue broadside.  I cranked the old Redfield on my 50 cal T/C Omega up to the maximum magnification of 7x, settled the crosshairs on the back of his shoulder blade, and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing, no boom no smoke, just nothing.  I had forgotten to pull back the hammer.  Calm down, I told myself.  A second or two passed and the buck stood still.  I thumbed back the hammer, repeated the process, and this time everything went just about as it should. 
 

Except that the buck did not fold up like they usually do when struck on the shoulder.  Thru the smoke, I saw him trot off  tail down, towards my pond about 90 yards away.
 

 Could I have missed again ?  I reloaded up in the stand, climbed down and walked towards my pond, where I last seen him.  As I got closer, I noted the old familiar brown lump in the grass, just 6 yards from the pond.  
 

The shot had missed the back of his shoulder blade by about 1/2”, piercing both lungs and exiting his back side.  He expired 85 yards from where he had stood at the shot.  
 

His chest girth taped at 39-1/2” and I have not yet calculated his dressed weight.  Surf and turf (fillet mignon and oysters) were good for lunch today.  I’ll be grinding the rest (except for the back straps and neck roast) tomorrow on a paid Holiday from work.  
 

Thank you Jesus for maybe 60 pounds of grind and the second best Christmas/birthday gift that I can recall.  I hadn’t done any other Christmas shopping for my wife yet, but she’s estatic with that one.