Shot my first buck at about 6:30 pm. Wish the camera had caught it. Arrow went clean through it. Had to follow the blood trail for about 100 yards. This is me dragging it back to base camp.

He was a young buck. Camera had caught him with an 8-pointer and some does, but he was by himself this time. Probably got run off by the older buck. The arrow entered about 1 foot higher and to the right of where I was aiming. That tells me how fast he reacted to the sound of the crossbow firing, because my bow always hits the bullseye on the target. The bucks don't smell at all bad like the does. A doe has a rank odor about her. Didn't mind processing this one. Got about 25 lbs. of meat. Could have gotten more, but it was too dark and I was too tired. And the rest of the meat was lower quality and would have had too much sinew in it anyway.

Below is a photo of what this buck and the other did to my plum tree. Not only did they use this one for a rub, they ate all the lower branches off it and most of the other fruit trees.

Steaks off one of the shoulders. Note how lean the meat is. This package weighs about 1.5 lbs.

Vacuum sealed, it will come out of the package in 2 years looking like it did when it went in.

Cubing some shoulder for stew. The meat in the bowl was ground for tacos, spaghetti sauce, and chili.