Just thought I'd write a quick story about the buck I got during gun season this year. It's not a huge buck by any means but they are all trophies to me because of the stories that go along with them. The story of this buck is as follows…
It was Friday and my last day of gun season to hunt so I wanted to be at my stand early in the morning and stay all day if necessary. The stand I was heading to is across a creek that was frozen…but not frozen enough to hold me (I didn't think). There is a big beaver dam on the creek so I decided to get up really early and walk the extra distance through the swamp to get across this beaver dam. My treestand is on a strip of high ground in an ash swamp 300 yards from the beaver dam. The early morning walk through the swamp and then to the area of high ground just 30 yards from the beaver dam went quick and easy. Those remaining 30 yards, however, consisted of shoulder high swamp grass that was flooded by re-directed water from the beaver dam. There was a layer of ice covering it but I could hear the water moving underneath. I did my best to jump from one clump of swamp grass to another but after getting halfway to the dam I broke through and got wet up to both knees. So there I am, it's 5:45 a.m., 2 degrees above zero, and I have ice cold water filling up both boots…not good!
So, I jump my way back onto high ground and walk to a different tree stand that is about 100 yards away. I stood there until 8:00 a.m. and by that time everything on me was frozen from the knees down. I could hardly get out of the tree because all my layers of pants were frozen solid. Anyway, I went back to our hunting cabin and dried out my clothes. This took until 10:00. The whole time my clothes were drying I was thinking of a way to get across that darn creek. Finally it came to me. I would push the canoe out onto the creek as far as I could then climb in and "wiggle" my way across. The creek is only 15 yards wide so it wouldn't take me long. At 10:30 I was finally ready to get on with my day of hunting. I drove my truck to our little boatlanding on the creek, pushed the canoe out onto the ice, climbed in, and made it across! Now, the only problem was that directly across the creek from the boatlanding is a jungle of tagalder swamp. The trail to my stand is on high ground 150 yards up the creek. I decided to leave the canoe there and pick my way along the edge of the creek, hoping that the swamp part was frozen enough to hold me. After a few close calls I made it to the trail I had cut through the brush and was on my way to the treestand I had been trying to get to all morning! What happened when I got there is a perfect example of why I love deer hunting so much…because you just never know what's going to happen.
I climbed up into my treestand, unzipped my backpack, and went through the process of applying my layers of warm clothing. As I zipped up my blaze orange vest I glanced at my watch to check the time…it was 11:20 a.m. At that very moment I heard what sounded like a deer trotting through the snow. Sure enough, coming through a row of cedar trees 100 yards way was a deer. It stopped just after exiting the cedars, and although it was very brushy, I could see the main beam of his antler and decided he was a shooter. Just then he took off again. It was so brushy I was afraid he would disappear before I could get a shot so I desperately tried "grunt stopping" him. Finally, after I literally yelled at him, he stopped "dead" in his tracks. I could only see his lower neck / upper shoulder area so I took aim and fired…and the buck dropped right where he stood!! I couldn't believe how lucky I had gotten. I glanced down at my watch again and it read 11:21. I got down from the tree to retrieve my buck. After getting wet, freezing my legs, and having to waste the whole morning drying out clothes, I could still say it was a great day…now that's what deer hunting is all about!!
Note: While dragging my buck out I pulled it right down the frozen creek and didn't break through…which meant that I could have made it to my stand early that morning if I had only tried. How different would my hunt have been if I'd been there all morning? Hmmmm…
