By Randy Barnett

February 18, 2018

The 2016 deer season coincided with the fall full moon known as the super moon. The full moon was larger and brighter than it had been in years. I was concerned how this would affect deer movement during the firearms season. Opening weekend didn't appear to be any different than previous years with average deer movement and the occasional sighting of a decent buck.

Monday morning was clear and cold with a heavy frost on the ground. I decided to move about 300 yards from where I had hunted during the weekend to try and catch deer movement earlier in the morning. I was set up in the edge of a thicket watching an open field that would allow me a shot up to 250 yards. I was using my Thompson Center Encore pistol chambered in 6mm BR and my Dan Wesson 357 Magnum revolver.

About an hour after sunrise a huge buck walked into the field from my left. I was startled by his appearance as I never heard or saw him until he was in the field. I had the Dan Wesson lying in my lap and I grabbed the revolver and quickly braced it on my Bog-Pod. The buck was slightly quartered at 60 yards. I touched off a shot and he immediately went down, but tried to stand again. A second shot into his lungs put him down for good.

He turned out to be a huge 11 point that we had trail camera pictures of from as far back as July. The deer had an inside spread of 18-1/2" and scored 153 - 6/8. I was using a 158 grain Hornady XTP Flat Point over a healthy dose of W296.