| | What a great country we live in! Special shout-out to the men and women in the armed forces. The freedom they provide affects every aspect of our lives and the ability to hunt ranks way up there in appreciated freedoms. Below are the bucks I have harvested in reverse order with a few other tid-bits added in.
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 | I received my love for hunting and the outdoors from the greatest man I have ever known; my grandfather Robert C. Godsey. He stepped up to the task of being the father figure in my life. I spent my summers with him in West Virginia riding all over the countryside as his inseparable side-kick. He took me hiking and fishing through the summer and hunting whenever possible. Every moment together was a seminar with a character lesson and real life application. When he fell and broke his hip, that phase of our life ended and I quit hunting altogether. I visited him often, but ended up in a struggle with drugs and alcohol and it wasn't until after his death that I returned to the woods. I wish he was around to see that I turned out ok, and that his time, love and teachings were major factors in me being successful in and out of the woods. |
| All bets are off when you reach late December but I was extremely blessed to have this mature buck show up under my stand with only minites of shooting light left. Shot throught the heart with my Ten Point Stealth SS at 19 yards, he only ran about 30 yards before crashing. |  |
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I took this dandy buck while hunting in Wayne National Forest in S.E. Ohio on Dec 1st, 2016. I have hunted the same area for many years and he is the biggest I have ever seen there. Also blessed with great friends who helped me with the ~2 mile drag through some very rough country!
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| I was blessed with a really nice buck after a hard week of hunting. Sometimes tough to sit all day and think about all the things I could/should be doing, but I do love to hunt! Taken with a Tenpoint crossbow on Nov. 13th 2015. |
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I took this Buck on Jan. 14th 2010 using my Martin Bamboo Viper
longbow (45# @28"), a custom cedar arrow made by a friend and tipped
with a Woodsman broadhead. It did the job and zipped through him at
12 yards. He ran 35 yards before wiping out on a patch of ice where
I found him. When he fell, he broke the G2 on the right side (stuck
back on conveniently for this photo). It had snowed all day and we
had 5" of fresh snow. I headed out just as it was slowing down and
timing was perfect since he walked by my stand very close following
a smaller buck. |
| A check mark on the hunting "bucket list", I was thrilled to get
the chance to bear hunt in Saskatchewan in May of 2009 with my
Pastor and another friend. I managed to take this 6', 250# black
bear on the 3rd night of the hunt with my TenPoint Defender
crossbow. I had a great time and will also never forget the next
evening when photo observing from a stand simply armed with a stick
that "should" persuade any aggressive bears from treating me like a
pinata. I saw a sow and 2 cubs, but they didn't come close... might
have been from the noise of my fear-induced rattling teeth. |
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Taken on Jan. 2, 2006 this heavy 10-point is my first deer with a recurve bow. I had just gotten the recurve (a 50# Martin Revelation TakeDown in Mossy Oak) a few days earlier but was shooting well enough to take it out. My big hopes were to put an urban tag on a doe. I was sitting behind a ground blind since the bow is too large for the interior when this deer walked into my shooting lane at 19 yards. I stood and made a good shot behind the shoulder on his right side. He has filled the freezer nicely. I'm ready to defend my title in this year's LN chili cookoff!
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| The "Jerman Buck" was harvested the morning of November 10, 2004 with a crossbow. I am thankful that God allowed me to have an opportunity to see him much less have a chance to take a deer like this. I have been having a great time with him and I appreciate everyone's interest. Go to "Jerman Buck" on the left nav for details about the deer.
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This bruiser was chasing a nice 9-point around my stand for 30
minutes before offering me a shot at about 20 yards. The 11-point
measured 155 5/8" and allowed me to join the Buckeye Big Buck Club. I took him on 11/14/2001 with a crossbow, custom light arrow and a 100grn Spitfire mechanical
broadhead.
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| I managed to harvest this older 10-point in January of 2001. Harvested with a crossbow, a carbon arrow and Spitfire 125grn mechanical broadhead. An interesting fact is that when I was butchering
this deer, I found a broken off mechanical broadhead in it's shoulder. All I can say is he should have been using a Spitfire!
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Here is an 8 point I took with an Ithaca Deerslayer smoothbore,
shooting Breneke slugs. I grunted insanely hard and loud to get his
attention from 80 yards away. He turned to me, and walked to within 30
feet of my stand where I took the shot. As I was lowering my shotgun to the ground, I didn't get the clip on well enough and it fell 15 feet. It stuck in the ground like a Lawn-Jart. Thankfully, it did not effect the gun's accuracy.
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| This 6-point rack came off my first buck. I had shot a doe at first
light and with a second tag, I was lounging 150 yards from the truck waiting for the others
in my hunting party. Suddenly this buck jumped up and began bounding across
a field I was watching. With a shot that impressed all (especially me) I
took his heart out at 80 yards with my smoothbore Ithaca. I got so
excited, that when I jumped down, my insulated britches fell to my ankles and I did a head
first slide into a pile of brush when I took off running.
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I have harvested many does through the years. It is one reason I can say that my family has not purchased beef (except for a couple cookouts) since 1995. All of them have been a blessing, but this was an interesting one:
I was sitting back in a ground blind eating some
peanut butter & cheese crackers (great deer attractant :-) and a
deer ran within 3 feet of me. It startled me to say the least and when I
jerked to attention this one stopped, turned and bolted. A few loud
grunts brought her right back to me. At 25 yards I delivered the arrow.
It was a very warm day so it ended up in the fridge until I could get it butchered. My wife was quite the trooper.
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I also shoot and hunt with a compound bow. My current hunting compound is a Rytera AlienX. I set it up with a Black Gold Flashpoint Sight, QAD
Ultrarest Pro HD rest, TrueGlow Doniker dampener, string loop, string silencers and use a Tru-Ball release. For arrows I use Carbon Xpress 350's from Bass Pro and 100grn.
Rage3-Blade mechanical Broadheads. It has proven to be extremely quiet and accurate. My indoor target bow is a Martin Shadowcat with $100 bill dip, Copper John Antz sight and Limb Driver blade drop away rest.
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