We had a very nice 9 point show up early season that we starte calling “Boots” due to his very very dark legs. Boots and I played cat and mouse for 3 months. Every time I thought I had him patterned, he would prove me wrong. Towards the end of the season I would’ve sworn to you that he had GPS tracking on me and knew when my truck pulled in. 1st encounter, 5:26 he steps out and 5:31 is last shot I wait for a shot but hes not giving me any opportunities. at 5:30 I took a shot at him quartering to me hard. It was super dark and I probably should not have shot. Clean missed him just to the right. 2nd opportunity, he walks out 6 minutes before sunset and sniffs around the field without stopping for even a second. After about 2 minutes (felt like 2 hours) he slowly walked off and exited the field to the opposite side. I refrained from shooting as I was not confident I could get an ethical shot off without him stopping. (Meh didnt work)
3rd opportunity…February 9th, 2025. 1 day before season ends…4 minutes before last shot, Boots steps out and walks straight to the middle of the field and turns broadside to me. I take my shot and the rest is history. He’s currently being mounted!
Muddy cameras had let me down with reliability of when it would actually take a picture. Once we put the WiseEye DC-2 out, we said…. “well either this things a deer magnet or we have been missing ALOT of what goes on out here”. Turns out pops was right. I was able to lock down a pattern on this guy and close the coffin on him. I honestly do not think I would’ve filled this tag without the DC-2!