My name is Wesley Koenig and I shot this 10 point buck on my dad’s land in Fayette, MO. The night of Monday the 16th, around 5:10, I was quickly losing hope of seeing deer with the weather having been so nasty and dark coming quick, when I looked across the field and seen a doe walk down the hill. I was about to shoot her when I caught something out of the corner of my eye and looked behind her and saw a huge buck behind her. I automatically forgot the doe and focused on him. I watched him for a couple minutes, then he started to spook, so I gave him a voice grunt and stopped him right as he was about to enter the woods. He turned broadside and I fired the shot. However, it turns out that I rushed the shot, and missed the deer. Tuesday morning, I ran upon the buck in the picture and thought it was the same buck, except he was limping. So my first thought was that I hit him in the leg the night before. So I stalked up on him and had one oppurtunity to shoot but it was through brush so I didn’t and I ended up spookin him towards my brother’s treestand. So I let him go and went up and sat in the treestand. Around 1:00, I was climbing down the ladder(didn’t have my gun in hand) and looked up and he was walking right toward the stand, about 10 yards away. I hurried up and got my gun, but by that time he had turned and walked out of sight. So of course I was praying for him to come back but he never did. The next afternoon, a friend of ours that lives up the road called and described a deer that he saw down the road that fit this deer’s description so I got hope back up since I knew he hadn’t been shot yet. Well, I hunted everyday without seeing him. Then Friday morning(the 20th) I was out in the field and my scope had somehow gotten moisture in it and was fogged up to where I couldn’t see a thing. So I came back to the house and put it away and grabbed my dad’s gun and went back out. I sat in the field for about 10 minutes then decided to go to the treestand where I had last seen the buck. I stood under it instead of getting in it because I didn’t plan on staying out much longer before I had lunch. I stood there for probably 15 minutes or so, then I took a step backwards to leave, and I caught movement to my left. When I looked over, there he was and I thought to myself, “well look who’s back.” I had the gun slung on my shoulder so I had to get it up and shouldered. I got it up and was lookin at him through the scope and he was in some thick weeds to where I couldn’t see much of him, but at one point I seen his tail and thought he was walking away from me. Then just as I had lost hope, he turned and was slowly walking out of the weeds. He stopped in the middle and was scratching and just being a deer. Then he took another step and his head was out of the weeds but I just didn’t feel comfortable with the shot. Then he took one more step, but turned facing me. I thought he was going to spook so I gave thought to shooting him in the neck, but right as I thought that, he turned broadside and I let him have it. He was a mere 15-20 yards away when I shot, so I could easily tell I hit him. He ran about 40-50 yards and fell, then I had to drag him out the thick stuff so I could get the 4 wheeler to him. He isn’t the biggest buck I’ve shot, but after developing the “storyline”/”relationship” with him, I’m proud of him all the same. It turns out though, it wasn’t the same buck I missed monday. The reason he was limping is because our neighbors hit him with a car last year and his leg was broken and it healed weird.
