Redemption is Sweet

Well, after my weekend at home of heartbreak and confusion I got back on the horse and got right back into the stand. Monday morning of the 7th (an exact year after Coleman's giant) my alarm sounded an hour after I set it. Thankfully, I set my alarm 45 early every day as I love the snooze button. I got my stuff and bolted. Got into the stand quietly and with 15 minutes before legal light. Beautiful morning. Sun was just about ready to show and turkeys start making their way down the ravine. I hear oak leaves crunch on a trail dead ahead of me and this time it is not turkeys. I swing my legs on the stand and look up to see a nice buck making his way right to me. He stops dead in his tracks and pegs me. His head bobs as he tries to pick me out of the skyline. He doubles back and is going right back from where he came, stops, and then turns around again to come down my trail. Every ten steps he stops and looks up at me. He finally commits and makes his way down the ridge to my opening. "Look thru the peep" says Rachel, "squeeze" I hear Nick tell me, "Loosen your death grip and take a breath" I tell myself. He stops in a basketball sized opening. I am already drawn back and decide to not shoot. Dad biffed a shot not waiting for the open shot, I will not do the same. He walks into my lane and stops. SMACK! A blast of sand behind him tells me complete pass thru. he runs up the side of the other ridge and stops 50 yards or so from my stand. He starts to sway, his tail goes up and starts pinwheeling, and he barrel rolls sideways into a downed tree bole. Redemption. Perfect shot placement on a nice buck feels nice.

I get out of my stand and go straight to him. I go to the top of the hill and get Nick to come help me take pics and drag him out. I sat at the hillside and soaked in the morning. A flock of speckle-bellies flew over, turkeys continued to scratch the leaves behind me.

Nick finally made it to me and we took some pics before dragging him out.

It felt good to put a nice buck on the ground, and eventually on the wall and freezer.

Nick helped me gut and start dragging the brute out. We soon figured out that this thing was stacked. Even gutted he was one of the heavier bucks we have harvested. We got to the ravine bottom and were already heaving trying to catch our breath. We had a goal to get him to a flat spot on the hill before taking a break. Just before the spot I slipped and all the weight went to Nick. POP. That was Nick's back. He crumpled to the ground and couldn't catch his breath. We eventually made our way slowly to the top of the hill without the buck and went to get the landowner's four-wheeler. We were given permission to use it the year before, yet we were too stubborn to use it the first time. I couldn't get it started and Nick was broken. I sent him home to have Lisa take him in to the doc. (Later we found that he completely dislocated a rib). A buddy of ours, Ethan Shetler, came and helped me with the four-wheeler and we got the buck out. What an odyssey. I packed him in ice and left him in Nick's garage and dealt with the rest that night.


The next Wednesday morning, Ethan shot a dandy basket out of our willow stand. We were unable to help him search for it or take pics. To shorten things up, he jumped it and it tried to cross the Des Moines River. He doubled back to Nick's to use the kayak to search. No find. He looked down stream to find this:

 

He died midstream and floated down river. He hung up in a tree in the river! This was a true adventure.

More stories to come. 

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