The Story of Stumpy, starts in 2019, where my dad and uncle are talking about a buck that has a weird left side to him. The three of us want to shoot him, mainly so that he doesn’t produce offspring that have the potential to have whatever bad genetic with his antlers. Be advised as you read this, I would save this as a draft and update it as such.

I start scouting in 2019, but with only 1 camera for 170 acres, not going to see much.

2020 rolls around, and dad and my uncle haven’t seen much from him, until the waning months before bow season in November. He shows up in the main field by the orchard, before bow season, and follows around another heard of does with a healthy 8 point buck. At this time, his left side is a 2 point, and his right is a 4 point. No luck in bow or rifle.

Winter of 2021, the neighbor sends a picture to my dad of the big buck and Stumpy on his property, showing he made it through the season.

We go up to the farm in April of 2021, and I put out a lot of cameras. Which to my own inexperience, I shouldn’t have done and just waited until about June to place cameras but hey, live and learn. By June, July, and August, I’m getting pictures of different bucks, including Stumpy, which shameless plug here, follow my Instagram and you’ll see tons of trail cam photos. One picture shows up and is probably the best picture I have of him to date, and he’s standing right in front of the camera, and he’s got a beautiful right side of 5 points, nice and high, and his left side is split at the center, where it looks like two 1 points, but the center most one, has several ridges along it including small points.

It’s September of 2021, and he’s moving around getting that good food before coming back to the property at some point. He must have gotten into a fight with some other bucks, and his left side has been broken off. I’m a little upset with that because it was such a nice buck to see on camera, and also would be a nice rack to put up on the wall.

Late October hits, and its bow week for my father, uncle, and I. My Spypoint cameras have had him in front of our apple tree just before shooting hours, which gets me a little frustrated. He stays nocturnal and doesn’t show up during shooting hours and we all go home empty handed.

December of 2021 rolls in and he has been hit or miss on the cameras.  He’s occasionally popped up and then disappeared.

By April 2022, Stumpy had been hit or miss. Bucks have shed their antlers, my father had passed away and now I am on a mission for Stumpy.

It’s now June of 2022, and there has been no sign of Stumpy. Our neighbor has expressed interest in making him a target buck for himself this year. Personally I want it to be me but we shall see. Hopefully he didn’t get taken out during late season or on the road, or the coyotes got him.

It’s now officially March of 2023. There hasn’t been any sign of Stumpy, and unfortunately we do believe that he is officially passed on. Almost kind of fitting. My dad had said he wants to go after him, because he was a cool buck to go after, but after my dad had passed away he was gone and nowhere to be found.

Considering it is now late June 2023, I’m sticking with my statement in March. Stumpy has passed on.