This story takes us back to the 1998 bowhunting season. It had been another great year for chasing whitetails in the Mudbrook Valley...with many deer sightings and shot opportunities. Pedro had killed a five point buck early in October but Paco was still looking to score on a buck of his own. He had experienced more than his share of bad luck and futility throughout the season. With the bow season winding down to it's last weekend before gun hunting began, the two friends decided to take a little road trip north to Paco's parents house in Northwestern Wisconsin. This is an area of immense forest land and very few crop lands, which provided quite a change from the farmland the boys were accustomed to hunting. Paco had been hunting a certain area earlier in the year, and had seen some bucks, so on the first of their two evening hunts the two decided to set up here and give it a try. At the end of the night, however, they were more than a little disappointed over not seeing a single deer. The next day began with a scouting trip to some other areas in hopes of finding a good spot for the final hunt. Paco and Pedro started exploring a large oak ridge that has a power line running down one side. This was the place! They quickly scouted for trees and hung there stands...then left the area until later that afternoon.
It was cloudy and very windy when the boys climbed into their stands later that day. Pedro was in a location up the ridge from Paco and could look down on the area Paco was hunting. The action was slow until just before dark, when all of a sudden, Pedro picked up movement of a deer meandering along the side of the ridge and heading right towards Paco. Paco saw the deer as well and turned himself around in his stand to get in position for a shot. From his distance, Pedro couldn't tell if the the deer was a buck or doe so he just kept his eyes on Paco to see if he would shoot. Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, Pedro could see Paco pull his bowstring back and release an arrow at the deer. The arrow didn't appear to hit the deer but did find it's way into a bush behind the deer..."pinging" off branches until it finally rested on the ground. The deer walked off as Pedro watched in amazement (and amusement)...not believing that Paco could have missed on such a close shot. Pedro climbed down from his stand to go greet his buddy and console him on the missed opportunity...and to ask him why he was shooting at a doe! Paco told Pedro that the deer was indeed a spike buck and he DID hit it...although the arrow had deflected off a branch and hit the deer kind of low. Paco said this may have caused a gut shot because he could see some "stuff" hanging out as the deer trotted off. Let's go tracking!
The two picked up the bucks trail a short ways down the ridge and as they followed it, they began to see pieces of the "insides" of the deer. It was an easy trail to follow because it looked kind of like spaghetti hanging off the bushes. After following it for a while the two hunters decided to head back to the house, eat some supper, and gather up the deer tracking troops. A couple of hours later Pedro, Paco, and about six of Paco's family members were hot on the trail of "spaghetti". They followed it down the big ridge, through some thick slashings, and finally into an open swamp where the buck jumped up and took off running. The group continued in pursuit until finally the buck was found lying dead. As everyone gathered around with flashlights in hand, they were anxious to see where Paco's arrow hit. What a surprise it was to see that the underbelly of the buck had been sliced just enough to cut through the skin and allow the deer's guts to basically fall out the bottom...making it appear as if the deer's belly had been "unzipped". Needless to say it was a pretty easy "gut job" as most of them were hanging on bushes and trees along the trail. Everyone gave Paco congratulations on his fine spike buck...but then soon began ribbing him about the shot he made on it. Pedro started calling it the "zipper buck" and everyone thought that was pretty fitting. Paco was proud of that little spike buck even though it's antlers were barely the legal length of 3 inches long. Then, as if what had happened already with this deer wasn't entertaining enough, when Paco's two older brothers were loading the deer into the truck, they accidently caught his head on the edge of the tailgate and knocked one of his spikes off. It went flying up in the air and off into the darkness. What an adventure this was and what a great story it is to re-tell over and over. It always makes us laugh.
