Season Reports

Early Bird Gets the Worm, or Maybe a Big Buck

I had been there before; up late, carefully calculating the time it would take me to get to my hunting property in Wisconsin and setup into my stand the next morning. My alarm was set for 3:00am, which would give me just enough time to get showered, out the door and on the road for my two hour drive to Wisconsin‘s bluff country. That alarm always comes sooner than expected, but I knew that big bucks don’t wait for guys that sleep in. I was climbing the bluff by 5:45am which gave me plenty of time to hang my Lone Wolf stand with time to settle in.

Based on a quick weather check the night before, I had picked a spot that I had not hunted since earlier in the season. In 2006 I had killed my buck just 200 yards from this stand but further scouting last winter told me I had an even better pinch point on some heavy trails just further in a bench. Even in the early season the trails under this tree were heavy with doe activity and I knew bucks would be cruising this bench throughout the rut.

Settled in my tree I could finally see some daylight breaking over the bluff. Filming light finally became available and I did a quick deer check before I commenced whispering into the camera for a self-interview. As I was turning the camera off I caught some movement to my left. A doe fawn had somehow quietly snuck within 8 yards of my tree and I hadn’t even noticed her. She seemed a bit nervous but her attention was not on me, it was on something behind my tree. A second later I heard the blessed twig snap that we all love; I slowly turned around the tree to see a large bodied deer with its head behind another tree. Was it mom? A split second later revealed a head full of antlers.

My focus now dead on the buck, I quickly forgot the doe as I reached for my bow with one hand and moved my camera into position with the other. In the back of my mind I knew that fawn was going to catch my movement but I was going to be sure the buck didn’t. The doe began to snort loudly at my movement but the buck just turned and grunted at her! He appeared to be walking right into my first shooting lane but took a sharp turn down the back of the bluff. I thought he was gone so as a last desperation act I tipped over my estrous bleat call and it turned him right around. He stepped into my shooting lane at 18.5 yards and I let fly. My arrow struck true and he darted off and collapsed in just 30 yards. I had made a perfect shot through both lungs and clipped his aorta as well. He was dead before he even began to run.

Another Early Morning Hunt Pays Off

My fatigue from the early morning hunt had given way to elation as I held his rack in my hands. The early morning, late October hunt paid off again in 2007. You can bet that this hunter will be setting his alarm for the early hours when the end of October rolls around again next year.

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