2000SeasonResults

November 2...Pedro's Broken Arrow And Broken Heart

On Thursday November 2, 2000 Lefty, Paco, and Pedro went to Mudbrook Valley for an evening hunt. The weather was cool, cloudy, and very windy. Lefty sat in the Gap stand and heard a buck grunting from a distance but never did catch a glimpse of it. Paco sat on Little Buck Run Ridge and saw a buck chasing a doe through a strip swamp. Pedro made is way back to a new setup for the 2000 season called the Twin Oaks stand, which sites in a little draw between two sharply rising wooded knolls (one of which is Salt Log Hill). As darkness drew nearer Pedro still had'nt seen any deer, when suddenly the white flicker of a tail caught his eye. It was a doe walking out of the swamp and through some thick underbrush towards a heavily used trail. As she walked the trail to within 40 yards of Pedro, she stopped suddenly and put her nose to the ground. She quickly smelled Pedro's footsteps from where he walked in (he had doe urine on his boots) and bolted away from the trail about 20 yards. She then cautiously made her way through the brush away from Pedro's stand. After seeing this, Pedro immediately began to scan the brush where he had first seen the doe, thinking that just maybe a buck would be trailing. As fate would have it, Pedro's eyes met up with a large set of antlers moving through the brush exactly where the doe had traveled.

The big buck stopped where the doe had stopped, but instead of bolting off, he followed Pedro's footsteps straight towards the treestand...never once offering a good shot. As the buck walked closer Pedro got his bow ready and drew back. At the 10 yard mark he had his pin on the top of the Bucks neck and let the arrow fly. The arrow hit the bruiser , causing him to spin around and run away at breakneck speed. As the buck fled Pedro could see that the arrow didn't pass through and was sticking out the top of the deer' s shoulder. His heart sank because he knew this was not a good sign. When Pedro got out of the tree to look for blood all he could find was a broken off portion of his arrow with blood on it and the big deer's running track over the top of Salt Log Hill and into the wet tamarack swamp on the other side. After telling his story to Paco and Lefty the three men searched until well after dark for any sign of blood, but none was found. Pedro then came back the following morning and walked the swamp for nearly 4 hours before giving up the search. The trophy buck was nowwhere to be found and Pedro was devasted. (Note: Pedro saw this buck again the following Monday while sitting in the Circle Stand, which is over a mile away. He was limping noticeably on his wounded leg but still did not provide Pedro with a shot opportunity).

November 4...Barnacle Discovers That Bucks Float

On Saturday November 4, 2000 the whole gang was together again to hunt for big bucks. The rut was on and buck sightings were becoming very common. Pedro brought his nephew TyBone along on this morning and the two of them chose to sit in the Skyscraper under the cover of a dozen or so mature cedar trees. Paco headed off to the Circle Stand and ended up seeing 3 bucks, Lefty went to the Edge, Chico showed up late and hung his climber stand in the corner of a small clover field just in time to see a small buck walk right under him, and Barnacle once again took the easy walk down to the Boatlanding stand (do you see a pattern developing here with Barnacle always taking the "easy" walk). At around 7:45 a.m. TyBone and Pedro heard voices and then some banging that sounded like a canoe being launched into the Mudbrook. It was hard to distinguish the voices but Pedro originally thought it may be two of his uncles who were bird hunting the area. Then, at around 8:15 a.m., the banging of paddles against the aluminum canoeand sound of people talking came back. A voice hollered "big buck" two different times, leaving TyBone and Pedro wondering what the heck was going on. A few minutes later Pedro spotted Barnacle's truck heading down the old road to the boatlanding and, knowing that Barnacle had to leave early that day, decided that he and TyBone better go see what was happening. After TyBone climbed down and Pedro accidently dropped his bow out of the tree, the race was on through the swamp and out to the field. As they got to the road, Barnacle and Lefty were just coming out with the truck and on the tailgate was a beautiful 8 point buck! Barnacle jumped out of the truck and showed the boys a grin from ear to ear before telling his story. He was thrilled and the rest of us were excited to hear how it all happened. TyBone could hardly believe his eyes!

Barnacle said that the big bruiser had walked right down the road with another deer at 7:30 a.m. The other deer quietly crossed the Mudbrook while this buck rubbed his antlers in the brush a few times, acted like he wanted to cross the creek, but then finally continued on down the road, and then the trail, towards the Boatlanding stand. Barnacle could hardly believe what he was seeing. Here came this super buck, walking down the trail right towards him, sun glistening off his fine rack...it was almost like a dream. Well, Barnacle apparently woke up and got his wits about him, grabbed his bow, drew back, and waited for a shot opportunity. He picked out an opening about 25 yards away and when the buck walked into it he let the arrow fly. The large buck jumped and kicked his back legs out before running the short distance to the Mudbrook, where a lot of loud splashing was heard. Barnacle could'nt see what was happening but assumed that the big boy had crossed the creek at the same place Chico's had earlier in the season. He got out of the tree, found the blood trail, then walked out to the field where Lefty was. This is where the story gets really interesting!

The two men took the canoe downstream about 100 yards to where the deer crossing is and got out on the other side of the creek to look for blood. The only problem was, there was no blood to be found. After searching for a while they got back into the canoe to check the edge of the creek where the buck was shot, thinking that maybe he was laying in the long swamp grass along the water line. As they paddled back across the creek they noticed something in the water a few hundred yards downstream. They at first thought it was a rock but decided they had better check it out. Sure enough, as they approached the large object, it became obvious that it was the big buck...floating downstream! Lefty grabbed hold of the antlers and the two of them tried to pull him back upstream to the boatlanding but he was just too heavy. So, they muscled him over to the edge of the Mudbrook where Barnacle gutted him out, then they were able to pull him back to the landing. It was a great adventure for a great buck. Barnacle had previously held the club record for the largest buck with a 9 pointer but this 8 point bruiser would surpass it in nearly every category, thus making Barnacle "the man" once again (but still and easy target for teasing). The buck had a perfect 8 point rack with an inside spread of 18.5"...it was beautiful. Way to go Barnacle!

November 9...Lefty's Surprise Visitor

It was November 9, 2000 and Lefty and Pedro were in the Mudbrook Valley hunting the peak of the rut for the fourth day in a row. Pedro had seen quite a few bucks and even missed an 8 pointer a couple of days earlier but Lefty was not experiencing the same success. Most of his buck sightings were occurring on his way out of the woods or from a great distance. What Lefty was about to find out, though, was that all the time spent in a treestand over the previous three days was about to pay off big time. For this evening hunt Lefty decided to give the Triangle stand a try because the area it's located in had not been hunted for a couple of weeks. The Triangle stand sits along a fence line which has a row of mature pine trees running parrallel to it about 10 yards away. It is an excellent spot to ambush deer as they travel along the edge of the pines...if you can spot them soon enough to get a shot off. This is exactly the situation that was presented to Lefty on this hunt.

As he stood with his back to the pines, scanning the area out in front of him, a nice 8 point buck was making his way through one of the openings that Pedro had cut in the pines. Lefty turned around just in time to see the buck making his way down the fence line and away from the stand. By the time Lefty grabbed his bow and was ready to shoot, the buck was already 20 yards down the fence line which provided a quartering away shot. The big problem was that there was a fair amount of brush between deer and hunter. As the buck continued walking at a steady pace Lefty drew back, picked out a small opening, and released his arrow. The buck hunched up and took off running. It quickly disappeared behind the pines as it crashed through a washout area and up a mild incline towards a nearby field. Then all was quiet. When Pedro showed up on the scene Lefty shared his story and showed Pedro the broken arrow shaft. Lefty was afraid of losing the buck in the same way Pedro had lost his nice buck just a week earlier. It was after dark when the two of them set out to track the buck. Lefty told Pedro that he did'nt hear any water splash when the deer took off running so he must not have gone into the nearby evergreen swamp. Lefty was right. The very nice 8 pointer was laying dead in some thick brush just 30 yards past the washout area. The interesting thing about this, though, is that there was plenty of water in the washout and the deer's tracks went right through it...but Lefty never heard one splash! That tells you a little something about the excitement that goes along with shooting a whitetail buck...it usually happens so fast that your mind can't register everything. At any rate, Lefty got his buck, which was his biggest ever with a bow, and the third one of the season for the Highbanks Hunting Club...a new record. Great job Lefty!