Heavy-racked buck taken in Ottertail County!

Christopher Jacobson took this heavy 8-point recently and submitted it for our Buck Board. We asked him to tell us about it:

CJ: The buck weighed in at 221 pounds dressed and sports a mainframe 8 point rack with matching split G3s coming out of the main beams, making it a 10 point. He green scores 152 6/8 gross inches. I harvested the buck on Sunday, November 9th at 8:45 am when he came by my stand chasing a doe. The buck was taken in Ottertail County with my Remington 7600 pump in .270 caliber.

This particular season was a little unique as the property that I have been hunting for the past six seasons was sold at auction this past September. The owners of that farm, who have also been my hunting partners, were able to secure permission to hunt the property immediately west of their former farm. Due to the fact that I knew their farm was hitting the auction block, I didn’t spend any time running trail cams this summer as I didn’t think I would be hunting the area this fall. Therefore I do not have any trail camera pictures of this particular buck and have never seen it before. As far as I know, the neighbors did not know of the buck either. It then goes without saying that I was not hunting this particular deer and also have never had a chance to shoot it before that day.

This is the third nice buck that I have taken from this area. Back in 2009 I harvested a mature old nine pointer with a busted up rack. That deer dressed out a 258 pounds and is the heaviest buck I have ever taken.

Also, last season (2013) I took a beautiful eight pointer that dressed at 187 pounds.

The day that I shot my buck the weather was quite nice. We had temps in the 30s that morning with a fairly steady northwest wind at about 10 mph. The buck I shot was the fifth deer to come by me that morning. About ten minutes before legal shooting time, I had a doe walk within ten yards of me. Then a smaller basket-racked five point followed her same trail about twenty minutes later. About an hour after that I watched a doe cross the cattail bottom that my stand overlooks. Not much later, I noticed a different doe making her way through the slough bottom. I didn’t pay her much attention until she disappeared and I saw what I thought was a decent buck following her path. One look through the scope and I noticed good tines on at least one side of his rack and figured he was good enough for me. I picked a spot between some branches and took my shot at him standing broadside at 110 yards. Immediately following my shot the buck disappeared. I waited at the ready for a follow up shot if need be but the deer never showed again. I waited about twenty minutes before climbing down and making my way over to him. He was laying where he last stood, with a clean shot through the shoulder. Initially I had no idea how big he was as all I had seen before the shot were a couple of his tines on the side of the rack that was closest to me. Even after finding the deer I still didn’t know quite what I had as half his rack was buried in slough grass. After clearing away all the debris I realized what I had in my hands was something quite special. I was speechless as I stared at him in disbelief. I thanked God for the blessing and honestly started crying…I just couldn’t hold it together. This was just a dream come true for me. The mass on this buck, along with his side to side symmetry is what makes him so unique to me. His longest tine is just over 8 1/2 inches and he is only 16 5/8 inches wide inside, which tells you just how heavy this deer must be to reach the 150 mark without much height or width.

After looking closer at the buck, I believe he carries the same genetics as my 2009 buck from the farm next door. He shares the mass as well as the sharp inward curl of his antlers, which my 2009 buck has on one side.

I hunt hard every season and put a lot of time in the tree between archery, rifle, and muzzleloader seasons but I am not too proud to say that there has to be a little luck thrown in once in a while. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to take such a gorgeous animal.