My hunt gang will probably kill me for posting these images, but it needs to be discussed…
Back in Nov, 2011, I put out a Blog Post entitled; Pursuit of Ghost Buck Continues. It was essentially a photo essay of a special whitetail my gang and I had been hunting since 2009. Here were are 6 years later and I am STILL talking about the same deer!
And the best part is, this bad boy is still alive!!
Although I can’t know for sure the age of this old-timer, based on images I’ve gathered from 5-6 years ago when he had to be at least 3.5 years old, my Ghost Buck would now be approaching an incredible 10 years old!
A deer of this vintage is almost unheard of on Crown/public land, especially where we hunt. Deer numbers are dwindling and this aged warrior is one of the scant few whitetails we have left.
This is how the Ghost Buck appeared five years ago in October, 2010(already a 3+ year old at this point) He has a distinctive rack with a forked point on the right side, and has always been missing a browtine on the same side. (from an injury I assume he sustained at one point and was never able to grow a brow tine there)
And here is how the Ghost Buck looks this year:
How does one particular deer manage to avoid the hoards of hunters (including us) for nearly a decade? It only goes to prove the resilience and smarts these animals possess and oh, did I mention Ghost Buck has NEVER been photographed during the day and, as far as I know, has also never been seen by a single human being.
I am ‘secretly’ hoping we never get the chance to harvest this special creature, as I’m not sure what I’d do even if I eventually had him in my sights.
Outdoorsguy
P.S. Special thanks to my good friends at Bushnell for providing all the great trail cameras for testing over the years!
