It's also interesting that all these guys at camp this year are motorcycling buddies of mine. David and Don are from my days of riding a Honda SilverWing and meeting guys via an internet forum of SilverWing riders. Bill is a Fellow Founding Father of the Fossil Apostles Motorcycle Gang whose adventures can be read about at www.fossilapostles.com.
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| Don, aka "Blindstich" |
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| David, aka, "Dave from Wisc" |
Anyhow, as usual, I got up at 4:30 to make breakfast and then headed out to my favorite stand east of the Blueberry Swamp. Dave and Don were over across the road near the gravel pit. I sent Bill and Gabe down to near the railroad tracks on the southwest corner of Charlie's (my favorite bro-in-law) property. We had the land pretty well surrounded. There were no doe tags again this year, everyone was buck hunting only.
It was a cool morning but not really cold, mid teens above zero as I recall. Not much wind out of the northwest. A slight covering of old snow to help in any needed tracking. I got to the stand at about 6:30 with sunrise scheduled @ 7:30, legal shooting 30 minutes earlier at 7:00. I climbed up and settled in for a long wait if needed. Turned out, a long wait was not needed.
I was primarily watching to the west and north down the hill to the Blueberry Swamp. That was the direction the wind was from plus that is the direction of my shooting lanes and where the deer are most often seen. But I never restrict my hunting to one direction and am always slowly turning and scanning north, south and even way around me to the east. Of course east should not be the direction where deer would be because the prevailing breeze would send my human scent that way and warn any deer of my presence. But I've been fooled by deer not following the rules and coming in from the wrong side many times before so I try and keep alert in all directions.
At about 7:30, right at sunrise, I was starting to turn my gaze around to the south when I saw some movement in my peripheral vision further left of me. I looked directly in that direction and saw a deer moving from the south to the north about 60 yards east of me... and I saw antlers.... a buck! I spun totally around on my swivel seat and got my gun up while I keep my eyes on him. He was walking quickly but not running. He was obviously in a hurry to get somewhere so I had to act quickly or miss out.
As mentioned, east from this stand is not my primary direction of hunting. I have some minor shooting lanes cut but mostly that direction is overgrown with brush and trees. I found a narrow spot between a couple of trees to train my cross hairs and suddenly I saw brown but then it was gone. I remember thinking; "I should have pulled the trigger right then!". But I moved the scope over some more and had his body in my cross hairs. I could tell there was some brush that might interfere but I figured it was now or never so I squeezed a shot off.
At the shot the buck started running and jumped a fence but then he stopped and stood there broadside looking at me. Obviously my shot had totally missed and he was wondering what the heck all the noise was about. I had already ejected the spent shell and my Ruger American bolt action in .308 was ready for the follow up shot. I quickly found his body in the scope, moved the cross hairs to just behind his shoulder and pulled the trigger again. This time the aim was true and the deer went right over. I kept my scope on him a bit in case he got up again and needed more persuasion but it was very apparent he wasn't going anywhere.
I texted the other guys that my hunt was over for the weekend and climbed down from my tree. Normally, if I can't see a deer I shot, I always wait 20 minutes before starting tracking to give it time to die but, as mentioned, I could see him and he was down for good. I walked over to the buck, and as is my custom, I verbally thanked the Lord for His provision. It was about an 80 yard walk and I soon realized he was a big bodied deer with a nice wide rack.
After getting closer I counted 8 points. It was a very similar deer as last years buck "The Bruiser". I think Bruiser was a shorter but huskier deer, kind of like a football player. While "First Thing" was a longer deer more like a basketball player. Comparing later I found that First Thing's antlers were wider but Bruiser's were taller and thicker. Obviously very similar genetics and both were shot within a couple hundred yards of each other.I drug the him to a clearing, drove back to the huntin' shack and asked my favorite (only) brother-in-law to help me pick him up with his tractor which he was willing to do:
Thus ends another year at deer camp. Every year is an adventure!
