The word I keep using is unreal. Anyway this deer was presumably shot on the 30th of October with a crossbow; the hunter hit him low and through both front quarters and the brisket. So the crossbow hunter tried to and find and recover the deer for the next five days.
I arrived to hunt on Monday the 2nd of November and was glassing the area he had shot the buck unknowingly of course and saw him entered the draw looking for the buck or waiting for another opportunity. Then a rancher pushed about 40 head of cows through the area with a 4 wheeler and that was enough for me to leave the area. I scouted a different area observing good buck activity and verified that the rut was indeed starting. After arriving back at the farm house I discussed with my hunting partner what deer we had seen. He informed me that they had been getting trail camera pictures of this buck up a specific draw I initially scouted. I couldn't believe he was back in the area. But we had no idea at this time that this was the buck the cross bow hunter had shot and lost. So we went to bed with the anticipation of more scouting and potentially setting up a blind and using a decoy for the following day.
I awoke in the morning and went to take a leak outside since the indoor plumbing doesn't work and this buck pops up in the tall grass by the house. I had no idea it was "Dream Catcher" but knew it looked a lot like him and was a big buck. I immediately went and woke up my hunting partner and we gathered our gear and we were going to make a move on this deer and relocate him. We suspected this deer to have remained in the shelter belt of trees and shrubs but had no idea where he could have gone.
With bows in hand we both started paralleling the trees and I took the North Side and he took the South and I was making my way along the trees and he stood up in the field to me left. I couldn't believe that this buck was out in the open and in a field. My heart raced as I knew he was hurt and couldn't run so it was just of matter of letting him calm down, and bed again. He did almost immediately and I texted my hunting buddy that I found him and that he should get the camera. All I could see was the tops of his antlers and I tried to just keep myself mentally focused on shooting this deer and not his antler size. When he arrived he accidentally kicked up a rooster pheasant that flew right over this deer. Luckily he stayed bedded and we were able to get closer for the video. So I began sneaking closer to within about 40 yards and this buck already knew I was there and eventually stood up. I put the pin on him at 40 yards and he dropped immediately I still wasn't 100% sure this was dream catcher but just knew it was a very big deer. Walking up to this deer he was still kicking and rather than have him suffer any more I put two more arrows in him to end the suffering.
We couldn't believe what had just happened, of all the deer that could have been shot this year this deer was last on the list of potential deer to get killed.
