A sleepless night followed by a day to remember!

[sticknstring]

After a nice encounter Wednesday evening & heavy rains on Thursday, I opted to get back in the saddle friday evening. With the access to one stand flooded, I had only one other option with a NW wind. It was a ladder in a new location that I had set in July. It's always fun hunting new stands for the first time. With the strong winds, I wasn't in any hurry to get in there. By the time I showered & sprayed down, it was 6:20 when I finally hung the bow on the hanger. It was pretty quiet except one barking gray squirrel. With the heavy canopy overhead, shooting light was fading fast. I was just about to take my facemask off when I heard a twig snap. You all know the sound. My heart missed a beat as I slowly reached for my bow. I could now make out the figure of a deer approaching. The buckthorn is so thick, it's near impossible to see beyond 30 yds. As the deer turned 45 degrees onto the trail I was setup on, I could see his wide frame and knew it was the deer I was after. I had waited 3 years to catch a glimpse of this deer from stand and now here he was just 25 yds out. Already through my first lane, I drew back as he passed behind some brush. He paused briefly. Oh [PoorWordUsage], I thought. But he continued & upon entering my second lane, I mouth bleated and he stopped abruptly. Before I knew what happened next, the buck was charging through the brush like a bulldozer. All the practice in the world cannot prepare you for moments like these. Light grip, pick a spot, follow through - all forgotten that night. Not sure if I torqued the bow, had a decflection or what, but I'm claiming I made a really bad shot. It appeared the arrow hit him way back in rear-third of the body, I couldn't believe it. The opportunity I've been dreaming about and I blew it. I didn't dare move a muscle now. I didn't know how far he ran but normally they'll run 40-50 yds and stop and watch their backtrail wondering what the heck just happended. Ten minutes had passed and I could hear a deer approaching from the direction my deer ran off to but on the downwind side of me. Pretty much dark now, I could just make out the silhouette and white flicker of the tail as it passed. Not sure if this was my deer or not. I waited on stand for another 45 mintues waiting for the moon to get high enough up to provide some light for me to sneak way around and out of there since I forgot my flashlight! On the way out I found my arrow and although I could barely see, my nose told me what my eyes had seen was true & that meant a long sleepness night. To make matters worse, I checked the weather when I got home and morning rain was forecasted. Wonderful. I was up at 2, got my camera charged and my tracking gear together. Finally around 5:00, I couldn't stand it anymore and drove out to the woods.

I hit the trail around 6am and it was now sprinkling. I tracked him out to 50 yds or so where he must've stopped for awhile. This is where he pulled a fast one on me. It took me awhile to figure it out but once I realized that the blood on both sides of the trail was from one exit wound and that he had doubled-back it became much more clear. By this time, I had done quite a bit of walking already and had checked a trail camera a few hundred yards away. Guess who showed up on the camera that night? It was him, just minutes before he decided to come stroll by me. Not the greatest pic but cool nonetheless.

After he double-backed, the blood trail was sparse and down to drops. The fact that it had been raining all morning hadn't helped. I was now following primarily by tracks. With all the rain, the ground was pretty soft and his heavy splayed depressions were pretty easy to identify under the leaves. I tracked him to a big grassy area filled with water & willows. It was then that I called in the troops to start grid searching. I walked back to the truck, changed out of my soaked pants, and waited for the guys to show up. Knowing the area where he was headed well, I was pretty confident we'd find him, just a matter of when. We split up & started in around 12:30. At 12:32 I found my buck. He was laying out in the open in the marsh grass on the edge of cover. It was a gift. All my prayers from the night before had been answered. I was flooded with emotion as I walked up to him and grabbed those antlers. The trail camera pictures didn't do this deer justice. He was a monarch. This is where I found him.

After a few pictures and some peacework, it was time to drag him out of there. That took some doing. I recommend the buddy system - have your friends drag for you!

A few back at the foodplot and one more with my future hunting parter.

I have to apologize for the blurry pictures. I had my camera set on 640 instead of 2048! No idea how that happended & I was absolutely devestated when I realized that this morning. Something about playing with the camera at 2am I spose. I can't even blow up a picture for the wall.

[Code-Man]

WOW

[LOTWSvirgin]

WOW what a beast!!!! When you first seen him and before your shot what did you think to yourself??

[student]

I can't see by the picture, but how far back was the shot?

This is a great story with a lot that people can either learn from or relate to. It exemplifies the importance of preperation, waiting for the deer to expire before pushing it, and also taking your time while tracking. Great looking deer.

[Sorgy]

Wow Great Buck

Nice story to go along with the pics of the hunt. You certainly did a great job of recovering a great animal.

Congrats are well deserved

Steve

[engfish]

WOW is right. That's definitely the deer of a lifetime. Congratulations, and I'm glad that you were able to overcome a tough situation. I admire your honesty--you didn't have to admit to the "bad shot," but it happened. Great story, and hardly longwinded. We all enjoy these stories, especially with this kind of ending.

You got lots of time to spend with Little Stick now that you've got your deer!

[DonBo]

Great deer Stick! I know all about the overnight waiting. Hardest thing I've had to do in this sport. It payed off well for you. Congrats!

We'll all be waiting to hear what that bad boy scores.

[leech~~]

SWEET! What a hog. Nice story, I thought I was reading the Outdoor News and couldn't wait to turn the page to find out what happened! No way I coulda-woulda slept that night!

[SmilinBob]

Thats a beauty, be sure to enter him in the Rockin 101 big rack contest when it gets fired up soon, could win a nice rifle!

[NIBOWMAN]

Congrats, great deer, and great job with the recovery. We can all learn a thing or two about patiance and tracking from the story. Again, great deer.

[tritonman]

Stick, that is an absolute giant! Congrats on all of it! Nice to have all the history of him.

[mabr]

Congats and well deserved at that. To see him on trail camera pics and harvest "that" deer as your main goal is a accomplishment alone. But for it to be that caliber of deer is even better.

GREAT JOB!!

[slopmaster]

what a STUD congrats man that is a buck of a lifetime!

[Andrew Erickson]

awesome deer. congrats on that trophy

[nonteepical]

AWESOME those gotta be 30" beams! not very often a plan, and a deer of that caliber come together congratulations!

[Kyle]

What was the set up like? Funnel, field, oak stands, swamp? Ive got an area that has some monsters but Im not real sure where they are running on a regular basis so I figured maybe I could learn something from your set up.

[Scoot]

What a great buck! Congrats!!!

[hugonian1]

That's a beast.

Great story.

[Northlander]

WOW! Congrats on a awesome buck man! That will look beautiful on your wall. Conrats again!!

[mws4dux]

Great story,deer and pics!!! CONGRATS

[Steve Foss]

Deer of a lifetime. Big congrats!!!!!

[Borch]

What and awsome Buck Stick!

[MNpurple]

Beautiful animal. Congrats and great job on a persistant track job.

[MattL]

Awesome buck! Congrats!

[bottom-bouncer]

nice job! what a buck.