You can imagine my dismay...back in September of 2005, I was up late, feeling kind of tired from all the rubs I had made that evening and over the past couple of days. You really can't understand how much strain that puts on your neck when you get as old as I was back then. Things really start to swell up and become somewhat uncomfortable. So you can imagine my suprise when after a long evening how I could have let my guard down enough for one of Jay's crazy little camera contraptions to go off and snap a photo of me! I took off like a shot when I heard that thing snap and that bright flash - it took me 10 minutes of staring and head-bobbing to finally figure out what had happened. I can't beleive I made that mistake! It's probably the first thing in a long series of things that I had done wrong that eventually led to that fateful morning. But you can bet your antlers I didn't make any more mistakes that year!
That brings us to 2006, where after a long hot summer month I was really starting to find my stride. "King of the woods" is what all the girls called me. They seemed to really be impressed by the antlers that I was sporting this year - bigger and better than before. I think back to that summer and I recall seeing that "Crazy Jay" a few times ('Crazy Jay' - that's the name we all made up for him, because he was always trying to take our picture, or climbing trees and hanging things from branches. Everyone knows, deer don't pee in trees! Ha! C'mon Jay - what were you thinking?). One afternoon in particular I was laying in my favorite hillside tangle when "snap" I woke to the sound of a twig and there was Jay. He was walking right past me! Can you beleive it!?! He was about two bounds away and he didn't even see me! I can't beleive he didn't hear me snoring as loudly as I had been when he was walking through just below me.
Anyway... as I was saying... my antlers were really impressive that year. Thick, wide and strong as an oak. It was later that year that I really figured out my potential. It seemed that all bucks in the all the hills of Montana wanted to stop by and see me. I had tons of fun pushing different bucks from the adjacent wood lots around. They all wanted to come and see if "old King" was as tough as they were. I'll tell you not one of them could even come close to the moves I had that year. And the shoving that I had in store for them was truly a site to see.
The summer had been fun. "Crazy Jay" was out more than before in the places I like to spend my time. You wouldn't beleive that one time I actually saw him carrying a deer under his arm. And everytime a branch glanced against that deer there was a hollow sound - like it was made up of a thin layer of wood or something. Thunk, thunk, thunk as he carried that crazy thing through the woods - a FAKE DEER! We were all standing there on the hillside watching him as he hauled that thing around. I can speak for each of us as we were all thinking "what will this guy do next?" Crazy, just crazy.
That brings us to this past fall. I was really looking forward to more fun and games - pushing, shoving, rubbing and the does! You can't beleive the does in these woods! They all seems to love me. And then I had a strange run-in with Jay.
I have to think it was early October. I was truly a magnificent site to be seen. I had some friends of mine stop by the night before and we were sparring most of the night. So by morning we were all famished. Each of us headed our own separate way and I decided to follow a few of the girls down an oak ridge so I could get a well-deserved meal. I was so hungry that I really wasn't paying much attention to anything else. That's when it hit me! I caught the faint scent of "Crazy Jay". He was close but I never saw him... The next thing I know I'm floating out of my own skin, and watching Jay and his wife take pictures of me. That Crazy Jay - he's always doing something. How he made me float like this is something that seems will never make sense to me.
anyway, good story
Fun thread...
As told by Michael Hanback
Jay Gregory sent me a couple more pictures and some details on how he shot this fantastic 190" Midwestern Monster last Wednesday AM:
He had been hunting “Splitter” for 3 years. He got one Cuddeback picture of the buck in 2005, at night, when the deer was 4 years old. The next summer he got tons of photos and even filmed Splitter once in full velvet. But Jay never saw him during the 2006 hunting season. "A more fitting name for the buck might have been Ghost," he said. This past summer he never saw the buck, but he got lots more photos.
Last fall, Jay had hung a tree-stand set close to where he thought Splitter/Ghost might be bedding, but he was only able to hunt it once--one day in November--because the wind never was right.
Last Wednesday, October 10th, Jay and his wife, Tammi, made their way to the stand in the early-morning darkness. They had not been in there since last year, but they were excited because of the early-season north wind. (Just as I had thought, that north wind/cold front last week put those Midwestern bucks on their feet.)
Did it ever! Jay saw 11 bucks in and around some oak trees that morning; Splitter/Ghost was the last one to show. He had the giant at 60 yards and closer for 30 minutes. "By the time he got into bow range my nerves were shot," Jay said. The buck was chomping acorns when he shot him at 10 yards (50 yard track job). Tammi filmed the action.
The rack grossed 190 5/8, had 43 inches of mass and 17 scorable points.
"I admit I have a bit of an empty feeling now that Splitter is no longer out there," Jay told me. "When you hunt an animal for that long you get a great deal of respect for him. Splitter will hold a great place on my wall where I will pay my respects to him every day."
Glad you all enjoyed... back to work for me :(
