Archive for August, 2008
Deer Hunting The Trophy
As the afternoon went by, I found myself walking an old cut-over path. I stopped on the edge of a hardwoods and the cut-over ground. As I was looking around, I heard a deer walking in the hardwoods. The deer was approaching the cut-over.
To my surprise, I watched as a nice eight pointer walked into the cut-over about seventy yards out. The buck turned slightly in my direction and started quartering towards me.
As the buck came within forty five yards of me, he turned and started walking straight across in front of me. He never got any closer and I watched in amazement as the deer crossed and went out of sight. Little did I know at the time but we would meet again many times.
Over the next three years, I would come in contact with and watch as the deer grew into a nice trophy buck. I hunted the buck on numerous occasions. It got to be somewhat of a master chess game between us. I would make my move and then he would counter move. Then he would make his move and I would counter move him.
I would take several nice bucks on the farm during this time but always enjoyed hunting the original big boy. Each hunting season would be filled with great memories of the elusive buck. There would be many occasions in which the buck was in bow range but the shot was never clear enough to take.
I would set up and watch as the buck graced me with his presence. I gained a lot of respect for this deer. I never hunted the buck with a gun because I felt that the reward if received would be greater with the bow.
Sadly, just prior to the fourth season of hunting this buck, I discovered his recently deceased body while out scouting. I felt a big loss as my challenging opponent was gone. There were no signs of any type of harm to the buck. It appeared that he went to sleep and never woke up.
The deer was aged by a local wildlife biologist at being about six years old. He never grew more than eight points but was one of the thickest antlered deer that I had ever seen. I had the rack placed on a plaque in his memory.
