My friends sometimes accuse me of being nuts when I take my bow out during muzzleloader and rifle seasons. It certainly does make it a little tougher to fill a tag, but I just love the thrill and challenge of bowhunting so much that I can’t help myself.

Anyway, I loved getting this shot and story from 16-year-old Jeremy Lester of Hardy, who hurried out for an after-school hunt the hard way and got it done.

“Going into the stand late in the day November 14 left doubts in my mind wondering if it was even worth hunting this late. I headed out of
the house with my bow. My dad stopped me and warned me that I should take my muzzleloader. Hard headed and persistent I still took my bow.

Once I finally got into the stand it was 4:25 PM. I looked to my left and saw a few does feeding along the creek bottom. I figured there
would be a nice buck near and decided to grunt in the direction of the does. Next thing I knew I saw a rack coming through the woods straight towards me. I stood up and figured out how far the shot would be. As the buck got closer I started to doubt if it was big enough to shoot.
Confident the buck was a shooter I drew back and placed a great shot on him and he ran 80 yards and expired within my vision. When I went
to retrieve the buck I was surprised to see that he had broken off his main beam. The buck was now an eight point (5×3).”

I’d say there is little doubt this buck is big enough to be a shooter, broken beam and all. Congrats, Jeremy, on a great deer and great story!