The Outhouse Deer. 2013.
This story, unlike all my other buck
stories, takes place in Minnesota rather than Wisconsin. My friend,
Tim, had acquired his father's country property near Isanti, MN the
past summer and had invited me to help him get back into deer
hunting. He hadn't deer hunted for a couple of decades and was
hoping I'd at least give him some pointers, maybe even hunt with him.
I had spent enough time on this property to know that there were
many, many deer and our chances of going home with venison was very,
very good. I, of course, said yes immediately.
So, with the invite and the excited
acceptance we were now in planning mode. I checked the DNR regs and
found out that “Tim's Country Estate” (TCE) was in the slug zone
of MN. This would be something new for me, although I've deer hunted
for over 20 years I had never been required to restrict my firearm to
a slug gun. Though I have many shotguns in my gun cabinet, never
once had I fired a slug through any of them. With no rifled barrel
and with no sights to adjust this was going to be interesting. A bit like throwing rocks, I think. The
first thing would be to choose our weapons, buy some ammo and see
where they might end up on a target. We scheduled a sight-in day and
got started. I chose an old bolt action 16 ga while Tim was sure he
wanted to try an old side-by-side double barrel handed down to him
from his Grandfather. I was sure you couldn't deer hunt with such a
gun but he was determined to try it. I also provided our third
hunter, Skip, with a semi-auto 12 ga.. The long and short of the
story is that my gun was consistently 8” low at 25 yards, Skip's
was 2” low and Tim's was right on the money. Who woulda figured!
The other part of our preparation to
hunt TCE was to determine where we would hide to try and way lay some
deer. I had noticed a major trail down by the river, just east of
the house. We brushed in an area between some trees near there where
Skip would put his chair. Another site was set up on the ground at
the opposite, west end of the property,. Tim would sit there. But
the piece de resistance would be the stand Tim built on top of the
outhouse. This outhouse was no ordinary rickety plywood structure
but is the embodiment of the proverbial brick (blank) house. Made of
concrete block and roof trusses this turned into a very sturdy deer
stand of treated wood and a railing. Tim had also sheathed it with
rough-sawn slabs and tied a ladder to it for access. We were set,
everyone had a place to hunt and everybody had a gun, albeit not very
accurate ones.
Opening morning came two weeks later
and we were ready to go. After breakfast we each found our way to
our respective stands. Skip and I easily since they were so close to
the house. Tim had a bit more difficulty in the dark since he was
actually out in the woods and not in the yard. But we each finally
settled in and waited for legal hunting hour.
I was very comfortable up on the roof
of the outhouse. The weather was mild and the little south wind was
blocked by the half walls of the stand. A half hour after opening
bell, right at sunrise, I saw movement to the south. I could see a
buck heading into some brush there and would probably come out right
in front of me. I got my shotgun up and was ready for him when he
stepped into the shooting lane, about 30 yards out. I remembered my
site-in lesson and aimed at the top of his back, 8” high. The shot
him him hard right through his chest. He turned and slowly started
moving away from me. I knew he wouldn't go far but since he gave me
another clear shot I took it. This time aiming at the top of his
head and the slug hit him right in the spine which put him down and
out. It was a young 8 point basket rack. Nice deer, thank the
Lord.
That afternoon we all went back into
the city for a wedding of a daughter of a previous pastor of ours.
We had a good evening of reminiscing with old friends. The next
morning Tim shot a nice doe and Skip got the big brother of my buck
from the outhouse stand. A massive bodied 8 pointer, his first buck
and a nice one. Since we all had venison we decided to clean up and
go to a local church. That afternoon I sat in the far south west
corner of TCE to try and harvest another doe but none showed up where
I sat. Tim saw one while doing yard work but, of course, had no gun
in hand.
All in all, we had a great weekend.
Good friends, good hunting, venison in the freezer. Thanks for the
invite, Tim!
