Hunter: David Lindsey
Animal: 162 4/8" Whitetail
Location: Iowa
Weapon: Thompson Center Pro Hunter

How could things get any better than filing your bow tag on a mature whitetail with only a few days left in the season. Well put your TC smokepole in your hands and do what you love, head right back out into the field and get after them. After spending several days out with my PSE and finally filling that tag, I was trading it in for my TC. I had a good feeling about where I was going to hunt, it is one of my favorite places on the farm and a spot that proves its self time after time. This stand is where I had shot my biggest buck ever- a 203’’ and where Jackie had shot her biggest buck last year - a 169’’ giant. So I liked my chances and was hoping it could happen again.

This afternoon started off like most the past couple weeks, really cold and the deer were on their feet early to stay warm and fill their bellies. The deer started coming into the field and we looked up and here came two good bucks headed right towards us. I recognized one of them from a November encounter and we had some reconyx photos recently of the bigger one and I had seen him laid up beside the gravel road with a doe a half a mile away in early November. There was only a couple deer on the farm I had wanted to shoot and this guy was one of them, boy was I glad to see him still alive.

We let him come all the way across the bean field and into the corn and I decided to take him. When the TC let loose he tapped out right there, no tracking, no guesswork he was done. When I walked up to him I was really impressed. He was dark horned, wide, and had ten beautiful points. He is a 5 and a half-year-old buck that has shown up on our farm the last couple of years during late season.

It’s so cool to watch these whitetails year after year grow and mature and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Deer hunting takes us all from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs its but its still the greatest sport in the world. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to harvest such a great animal.