ROCK BORTELL
SADDLE: Unknown
LOCATION: West Virginia
First things first, this buck was killed in some rough country in the coalfield mountains of southern WV.
I had a history of this buck eluding my every move the last couple years. With hundreds upon hundreds of trail cam pics, I would hunt day light to dark on Tues-Sat., with him only to show his face Sunday. I could not seal the deal. That ended up being the story of my 2017 season with this guy. But with thoughts at the end of the year like every year, hell just be that much bigger next year, thats what I kept telling myself
Fast forward to 2018
To make a looong story short we jump to THE DAY, it was my first sit of the season. My trail cam pics and the extended weather forecast had been painting this beautiful picture of why Oct. 12th was the day of all days. The weather in my opinion, along with this being my first sit concreted my theory. The pressure system from a hurricane traveling up the east coast just had passed through, along with it bringing the first cold front of the year, dropping the temps down into the high 20s that morning.
Oct. 12th, 3:30am
my alarm is screaming in my ear. I go through my normal routine, scent free shower, base layers on and grab my coffee. Oh yeah, lets not forget to mention something Ive never done before. I woke my wife up to tell her this was the day the split G2 buck was gonna take his last breath!
Jumping forward to being tetherd into the tree…Its now 6:45am, Im hearing some heavy rustling among the leaves walking my way. The sound of crunching leaves are coming from my left side through some thick mountain ivy. Just having enough light that I could make out, it was a buck and a big bodied buck at that. At that time I glanced at my pins, only to my demise, realizing I didnt have enough daylight to light up my pins….. And who was it, the big 8 I had been watching since early summer. Granted, I had my mind made up he was also on the hit list for the year! As I so painfully watched him walk out of sight, I couldnt help but think that was probably my only chance at seeing one of my shooters! Little did I know, the G2 buck would show his face at 8:35 that morning. The experience was very surreal, one of those experiences where the buck is walking into your shooting lane and you tell yourself, this is really gonna happen…. And it did!!!! 30 minutes after I released the Rage, we were holding bone that scored just under 160 inches.