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Great job Joe!

Hi All: I got it done this morning with the bow here in Massachusetts. I've been pretty hard after it for about a week now, getting in either morning or afternoon hunts almost everyday in between some things for work. i went out this morning for the last time in probably the next couple weeks, weather didn't look too great for Saturday and i'm off next Friday on vacation for the whole week of Thanksgiving so i was feeling the pressure of getting it done today. Low and behold, the temps were almost 50 degrees at 5:00 this morning and overall it just didn't feel like a great November day. I had been seeing a random buck here and there over the last week or so but nothing seemed too rutted up, not really responding to the call that well and just overall somewhat disappointed in the action. I sit probably 100 yards or so off a field edge that they seem to navigate to in the evenings and either work their way off in the mornings or sometimes during the rut i think the bucks are checking the field edges early in the AM. So around 6:45 this morning i could hear some faint rustling in the damp leaves out in a slightly swampy area in front of me, i ended up seeing this buck come up through headed toward the field, about 50-60 yards in front of me, he got into some brush that leaves haven't fallen from yet and i tried the grunt tube a couple times, a couple soft grunts to try and get his attention... silence, nothing, wasn't sure if he was still there or had kept on moving the direction he was headed. Not a minute later, i heard a heck of a commotion off to my left almost behind me so i look and here comes a coyote on a pretty good sprint into the thick swampy area about 80 yards or so behind me, he goes through and i can hear loud crashing coming from the same direction he just came through, here come 2 more yotes, side by side, then another, 4 in total. They all worked about 80 or so yards through behind me and this deer was out in front of me, i thought maybe i'll hit the grunt tube again and see if the yotes running through the swamp grabs his attention, they were moving through, not howling or anything so i thought maybe the grunt coupled with the noise of something moving through might get him thinking there's another deer, sure enough, after i hit that grunt 2-3 more times i heard him start moving, he emerges from the foliage about 30-40 yards in front of me headed down a slight hill right at me, i could tell he was a nice deer but i didn't realize the size he was at the time. He got to the path that i walk in on and proceeds to crossover it but starts angling slightly away headed towards the swamp, he angled perfectly and i let out a mehhh and stopped him right in the path, let my arrow fly and saw blood immediately, i knew i hit him good, he ran about 60 yards or so, just into a briar patch at the beginning of the swamp and crashed. This is my biggest deer ever and to say i'm still on cloud 9 would be an understatement.

Nothin wrong with that 8 pt Don! Congrats! Typically Id'a passed on the one I took, But NOT this YEAR!

Congrats Joe, meat in the freezer!

Congratulations Joe!

Nice work Joe!

congrats Ranger...meat in the freezer!!