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.
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.
Stay Tuned
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