My hunting
partner and teaching colleague Warren and I met at the main
intersection in town at 5:45. His father was with him again this year
and I hoped his day especially would be a success. He has come to our
spot for two years now on opening day and has yet to see a deer.
I turned the key in the ignition and my battery was dead. We pushed
my car to a free lot and took off. We were now officially "running
late". It was a clear night and I knew daylight was coming soon. We
loaded our guns, checked our safeties and headed to our stands. We
dropped Warren's dad off in a natural funnel for deer when they are
being pushed. Warren and I were going to sit in eyeshot of each other
this year. Too many years we had deer walk right in between us only
for one of us to lose it. This year seemed to be promising because we
thought we had the area pretty well figured out. Warren had done most
of the scouting by setting his bow stand up right in this area. He
had seen a lot of deer, especially in the last week.
As I reached my stand, I looked at my watch...6:58. I was late, but I
did not kick anything out, so that meant that the deer had not yet
dropped down into the "Bowl" as we called it. It resembled a huge
bowl. The temperature was about 55 degrees, and for southwestern N.Y.
in the winter, that is a tad warm. Two seasons ago I sat in this area
and froze my butt off with 15 degree wind chills. So, as I laid my
coat down and got comfortable, I scanned the woods, looked over in
Warren's direction, but could only make out a little orange. He was
about 100 yards away. Oh by the way, we decided this year to hunt
this area because it is the thickest, nastiest area in the woods. You
only have a few old logging trails to shoot down but the deer were
making their own roads across them.
At 7:05 I heard what I thought was a deer jumping a log. As I peered
through the screen of saplings, I could see a deer's legs, and a bit
of the body. It appeared to be out for a leisurely walk. I watched
the movement for about five minutes and then I noticed that a
particularly large sapling next to the deer was swaying back and
fourth. I listened carefully and could hear antlers rubbing tree. I
began to get really excited and my hands started to shake a little...
this deer was a bonus to me because I knew it was bigger than a spike
or a fork, to be rubbing that tree. And in my hunting career of over
20years I have never gotten anything larger than a four point. Today
I had convinced myself to use at least one management permit, and
take the first big doe I saw, for my freezer.
I looked at my watch again it was 7:15. I looked back up and saw the
deer moving again. This time he was headed right towards me. I still
could not see the head clearly, but every once in awhile I caught a
glimpse of his horns. Then at about 50 yards, with a large oak and a
lot of brush between us he stopped. He took one step from behind the
tree and my eyes practically fell out of my head. This was by far the
largest deer I had ever seen up close and alive. They don't get much
bigger than that I thought to myself. And I started to laugh...don't
ask me why...but I quit shaking and actually started smiling.
As the buck began to walk toward me and off to my left I slowly
raised my 870 express. When he stopped, I stopped, when he walked I
raised. Finally, at 30 yards I had my gun raised down my shooting
lane where he was about to step out. I was down wind of him, with the
sun in my face. And I was staring at least at an eight point. It was
then that he stopped, turned and looked right at me, like he knew I
was there the entire time. I had my open sights on his front shoulder
but not quite good enough for a sure vital shot. He needed to take
one more step. His body tensed and he looked ready to bolt. As he
took a step I leaned to the left and squeezed the trigger. I stood as
soon as I saw him fall onto his side. I had knocked him right off his
feet. I could not believe my eyes when I saw him get up, shake his
head, and Run!
I pumped another shell into the chamber and took another shot. I
killed a tree. I watched him run out of sight. With the dry leaves
though I could hear him slow to a trot and fall. Then I heard him get
up again and run, then he crashed. I went to the sight of impact and
saw tons of gray hair and lots of blood. I was worried though,
because he ran an awful long way for it to have been a heart shot,
and there were no bubbles in the blood so it was not a lung shot.
Where the heck did I hit this deer?!!!
Just then, unannounced, it started to sprinkle. I immediately
reloaded my gun and got on the trail. The deer bled profusely for
about 150 yards and then stopped bleeding. I saw two places where he
had fallen. I stopped my pursuit, and doubled back to where Warren
was. As I approached quietly he looked at me and shrugged his
shoulders questioningly. I put my hand above my head to let him know
I had shot a big one. He said, "how big?" I said, "His antlers were
way out past his ears." He then told me that he had seen that buck
fighting another one before. "I didn't want to tell you because you
weren't hunting very much and I didn't want to frustrate you."
He was right, knowing that I could not get out on the last days of
bow season, it would have frustrated me.
We agreed to wait an hour and let him settle. We didn't want to push
him any farther for two reasons. First of all he was headed for
"Posted" land. Secondly, we did not want to push him past another
hunter.
I went back to my stand, sat down, and had a drink of water. I ate
one of my sandwiches. I had to chuckle when I looked at my watch. It
was only 8:00 am. I felt like I had been in the woods now for hours.
At 8:45 I looked behind me and saw Warren coming. When he got to me,
he said "I could hear him running after you shot, but I couldn't see
him. I even think I heard him fall."
"You did." I said. Then I told him that he had stopped bleeding. We
followed the trail again to where it ended. I stayed there while
Warren went in a cross section for about 25 yards and found another
drop of blood. I then "cross-sectioned" the woods and found another
drop. Then we found another good trail. After about 100 yards we
found where the buck had laid down, gotten up, walked five feet and
laid down, gotten up, walked another five feet and laid down. We must
have kicked him out again when we were trailing him but he didn't go
far.
As we stood at the last bed we heard him run. But he only went a few
yards and stopped. I took my safety off and we split up on either
side of the trail. We hunted him for about 70 yards until we hit a
logging road where he had laid down again. We quickly determined that
this deer was not going far. He had gone into thicker, nastier stuff
than where I shot him. If he was really hurt bad, we had him
cornered. Warren made a big swing around the patch of blown down
trees and scrub to push the deer to me. When he got to me, he looked
bewildered.
"That deer is still in this little section. There was no blood coming
out." He said. I told him I did not want him to waste his whole
morning on me, and that he should go back to his stand. "If this deer
is as big as you say I'm making one more push." He replied.
I told him I appreciated it. I also told him that I would stay right
where I was because I could shoot a few different ways, and they were
the only directions that buck could go. I told Warren to go back down
the road and get right on the blood trail and climb into this stuff.
He agreed. Warren had not been gone for 2 minutes when a shot jolted
me into reality. "MARK!!! GET DOWN HERE!" Warren cried. I put the
safety on and ran like crazy to where he was. He met me out of
breath, and smiles ear to ear laughing..."take a deep breath." He
said. "Is your gun still loaded? He is right there and he can't get
up, go finish him."
So I walked up to the biggest buck in this county, and quickly put
him out of his misery with a shot through the heart.
Warren and I pulled the deer out of the ditch that he had climbed
into up against the roots of a fallen tree. He had gone as far as he
could when Warren climbed into the thicks right next to him. Warren
had looked over and saw the buck staring at him. He told me the buck
had tried to roll like a horse to get up, but as he did, Warren shot
for the heart, but hit the foreleg. His sabot slug left a tiny little
hole. That's when I came running in.
He
was the most magnificent deer I had ever seen outside a picture in
outdoor life. He was a Ten Point with A small eleventh point that
would count in Pennsylvania. His antlers were massive, thick, high
and wider than my shoulders. Bucks around here we agreed do not have
that kind of mass. The other part about this buck was how big his
body was. He had to go 200 lbs. It was the biggest deer either of us
had seen. After getting a good look at him I determined that he was
the buck I had shot at for the last three years up here. I finally
got him.
Well it took a good hour and a half to clean and drag him down to the
house of the property owner we were hunting with. As soon as we did
we cooled him with tap water and hung him. He was huge.
We didn't see another deer for the rest of the day. But we were
excited to get this guy back to town.
This buck had a 19 7/8" spread and went about 200 lbs. It is a buck
of a lifetime, and is simply the best thing that has happened to me
this year. I am going to get him scored but I don't have the money to
get him mounted. I know it is a shame, and there aren't a lot of
hunters as diehard as me. However, we have a fourth child coming, we
had to make our house bigger for that purpose, and we will have to
buy a bigger car as well. I have to go with priorities, but I can do
a European mount for now and cape out another deer some other day.
Priorities are priorities. I've got the horns, the pictures and the
memories of my buck of a lifetime and my gun season of 1999. |