The Day Sit Buck

Thursday November 7th I took the afternoon off to begin some serious rut hunting. I had already put in some hard time, but was determined to get this far. Nick and I trekked back into the deepest darkest abyss on a public property. It was a trial run for the next day in which we would be sitting all day with a climber stand and too much gear. This hunt was a sweaty horrid walk that ended in a small tree far from where I figured I would end up. Despite this, the last 20 minutes of light was the craziest thing I have encountered in the woods. At one point I grunted in 9 different bucks, all of which grunted the entire way towards me. I had a shot at a rather nice buck, but it was already too dark to see well enough to shoot. After legal light, I looked behind my tree to see a giant cinder-block on legs. He was best described as growl/snort/coughing. I snort-wheezed at him and this only pissed him off more. He postured up and walked my direction. I decided it was time to be done with these games and get out of there before I was gored by a rut-crazed buck.

Friday morning, I arrived at Nick's place a little before 4am. . . . . .

We decided with the time we had we were going to sit all day at a property we had permission to hunt near Guthrie Center. I got set into my tree and Nick faded into the darkness to do that same. The temp was going to be mild, but rather windy, and I climbed into a wet noodle of a tree.

Not ten minutes after legal light I saw a decent buck. I told myself I would pass a deer that was right on the edge of shooter and this one had a tight frame, but not huge. After watching him pace around my stand for 5 minutes, he wandered off never to be seen again.

As the morning progressed I heard a deer running through the timber behind me. I stood up because I knew what that meant. Of course, the buck caught my movement. He was a definite shooter dogging a doe. She ran past my stand, literally ramming the tree I was in. He stood back at 25 yards broadside behind a tree. He ended up facing me at 8 yards and there was nothing I could do about it. He wigged out and turned on a dime, again, never to be seen again. This kind of thing went on all morning even with the wind whipping my tree around like coffee swizzle. After 1pm I did not see another deer.

 As the evening progressed, updates from Nick told me the deer were up his way. Oh well, I was not moving. Nick and I had been texting back and forth all day.
At 4:30pm I got a call.
Again, I grabbed my phone, stared at it, and let it ring a few times before answering.

"Jon, I just smoked a bruiser! He's like a 160" eight pointer and I smoked him."

I had to verify the shot and he told me it dropped about 40 yards from his stand within sight. Things can happen fast during the rut.

I asked if he wanted me to get down and help and he told me to sit tight and shoot a deer. At this point I just wanted out of the damn tree. I had been sitting there all day trying my best to maintain my nerves with the wind and a climber stand I am not 100% comfortable with.

He called back 20 minutes later apologizing that he was going to have to bust my hunt, and he was coming to get me.

Finally.

I was almost at ground level by the time he got to me, and he was a mess. It was rather enjoyable to see Nick tied up in a knot. We got to the truck and then stopped by the landowner to inform of a dead deer and inquired about using their ranger. Within minutes we were on the way up the hill and then standing over a huge buck.

We field dressed him and got out of there with what little light we had left.

This season has used up a fair amount of good karma as both Michael and now Nick have cashed in!


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Chief: The Halloween Giant

Where do I begin. First I will give my account of said event. Second I will post Michael's story.
Thursday evening, on Halloween, I had just gotten off work and was driving home when I got 'the call'.

"!(Incoherent muffled blather)!"
"Michael are you OK, what's going on?"
 "IJUSTSHOTTHEBIGGESTDEERIHAVEEVERSEEN!"
It was so disjointed I honestly thought he fell out of his tree stand. I did everything I could to pull out discernible information.
He shot a monster buck, and as usual was calling for advise. He hit it in the middle; the middle of the middle. Because of the marginal hit it was decided that he should get out of there as quietly as possible and go home. This deer needed to sit over-night just to be safe. A well seasoned veteran will struggle to let one sit over-night, let alone a 16 year old kid. Nevertheless, Michael waited until morning to start tracking. Based on his description of the shot location, and the deer's body language post shot, it was determined that the buck was indeed fatally wounded.

Morning came and I just walked around work with my phone in my hand. By 8 o'clock I was becoming concerned as I knew I had to have heard from him yet if there was any form of good news. 8:29... My phone starts ringing and I look at it. I let it ring because I already know.

"Jon? We found him. He's huge. I mean yeah he has a lot of bone, but I don't know how we are going to get him out." 

I literally started jumping around our clients lawn. My co-worker just shook his head and wanted to know how big it was.

Big day for all of us as we all wanted one thing out of this season, and that was for Michael to shoot a good buck.

Here is Michael's take on the event:

This last Thursday, Halloween at that, I got out of school and headed for work. Get there and my boss says its too wet to haul grain today. That was alright with me! So I quick gathered my stuff and got in a stand. I played the wind and got in as quietly as I could. I get settled in and was already enjoying the evening out. After half an hour in I did a light rattling sequence. At a quarter after 5pm I see a buck crest the hill; one glimpse at this buck and I knew who it was. It was a buck I called 'Chief'.



He pinpointed exactly were the rattling had come from and was making a bee-line right for me. He makes it to 16 yards, slightly quartering-to and I let the arrow fly. I hit him directly in the middle. I had felt pretty calm but I just freaked out I guess. He takes off and runs 50 yards out into the corn and stops. I'm glassing him and see my arrow stick out the side of him, but from the angle I couldn't tell exactly how far back it was. He then walked off slowly tail down and head low to the ground. After some phone calls the management decision was made to get down, check the blood to confirm the paunch/gut hit, then back out for the night. Getting out in a stealthy manner was a complete nightmare, deer everywhere, and my nerves were shot. I finally get back to the truck and headed home. I knew he was dead, it was just a matter of not jumping him. My Dad and I got back out there at 7:45am to begin the track job. Found first blood and followed it across the field. It was not a carpet of blood, but it was consistent. We followed blood down into this little draw, still consistent blood. 75 yards down this draw, there he was, piled in a heap!!!


It was just meant to be. I was happy to have my Dad here with me when I found it. Just added to the adventure.



This was by far the largest deer I have ever seen let alone shot at. It took everything we had just to get it in the truck, even after field dressing.

He's all butchered and in the freezer now! He rough gross scored at an unbelievable 168" with just over 50 inches of mass! Still hasn't sunk in that this happened. My goal going into this season was to shoot a 115"-120". I drew the right card and now I get to sit on my hands for the rest of the season, which also means I get to sleep in.

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