It all began back in 1999 when I decided to spend the opening weekend of rifle season with my buddy Paco and his family at Barr's Buck Busters deer camp in the big woods of Northwestern Wisconsin. I had always hunted with my own relatives close to home, but as I grew older, I really wanted to experience what it was like to go away to "deer camp". It only took that first season to get me hooked! The Buck Buster's are a great bunch of guys who take their deer hunting very seriously but also know how to have a good time...which would be another story in itself! Among the many traditions of this fine deer camp is an annual set of rules and events which are managed by various assigned "committee's". The most prestigous of the events is an opening day contest for which each hunter puts money into two separate "pots". The money in these "pots" is then awarded to the person who shoots the first buck of the season and also to the one who shoots the biggest buck. Well, Paco and I were not even a threat to win either of these two pot's during our first year...probably because he gave up his prime stand (which he killed numerous buck off) in order to hunt with me. Then in the spring of 2000 Paco was up north visiting his parents and decided to do a little scouting for the following gun deer season. He came back home and told me of a nice little spot he had found that had a combination of thick slashings and tagalder swamp all surrounded by a circle of ridges. He didn't think it was an area where anyone else hunted. We talked it over and decided that in the fall we would scout it again and see how it looked.
That November, a couple of weeks before the gun deer season, Paco and I went to the area, did some scouting, and hung our stands for the upcoming season. Opening morning arrived and we couldn't wait to get out to the woods. There was some snow on the ground and that certainly added to our excitement. As I climbed into my stand I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was 6:55 a.m. Just as I did this I heard some footsteps crunching in the snow. The morning was still quite gray so my visibility wasn't all that great...but as I followed the sound with my eyes I suddenly saw some deer sneaking through a low spot between the ridges and heading towards my shooting lane. I hadn't even been in my stand 30 seconds and I already had some deer coming my way...this was awesome! I carefully pulled my gun up and started scoping the deer as they one by one passed through my shooting lane. Doe, doe, doe, doe,...I was praying that one of them would be a buck (any buck in this area is a trophy). I watched intently as seven deer came and went and then, finally, the last deer had spikes on his head. I immediately fired and watched as all the deer scattered. I saw the buck jump as I shot, so I was confident he was hit as I watched him run over the ridge. I again looked at my watch and saw that it was 7:00 a.m. Wow, could it get much better than this? I had a buck after being in my stand for only 5 minutes! I decided to climb down and as my foot hit the ground I heard "BANG". It was Paco, who's stand was only about 100 yards away through the thick swamp. Did he shoot at a buck too? My mind was racing as I hurried towards his stand to see what was happening. I heard another shot from his direction and then all was quiet.
I met him on the trail between our stands and told him I had shot a spike buck. He told me that he had shot a spike too. I said "this is unbelievable! We each got bucks in the first five minutes of the season". Little did I know how unbelievable this really was. As we walked over towards Paco's buck I could easily see the body of it because it stood out against the snow. As I got closer I was expecting to see spikes on his head, however, what I saw instead was a big gnarly looking 12 point rack. Paco that &#%@!, he had told me it was a spike! This was an incredible buck! Well, we high fived and celebrated for about 10 minutes then decided to go get my buck. After tracking it into some thick brush I found it laying in it's bed and finished it off with one final shot. We now officially had both of our bucks! After registering the deer we decided to take the rest of the day off to celebrate. Everyone else ended up staying in their stands all day without seeing any bucks so Paco and I had won the "pot" for first buck of the season and biggest buck. We had a great time enjoying that successful hunt and later that night declared our new hunting hot spot would be named "Bloody Gulch". What an awesome hunting memory!
