In anticipation of the 2015 hunting
season, my son and I began packing for opening weekend at least a week early. The truck was loaded Friday morning so we could quickly leave that day after work and start our 2 1/2 hour drive to the deer lease.
Our plan was to stop briefly
at McAlister’s in Temple for a couple of sandwiches before finishing the
2.5-hour drive. We talked about the
expectation of cooler weather for the weekend as we ate. My son, who was only 13 at the time, realized he did not bring near enough cold weather gear. Despite packing his own gear for countless cold weather BSA camp outs, he was not as prepared.
As we left McAlister’s, we
noticed a Ross Dress for Less store
in the same shopping center as the McAlister’s.
We searched the store but found no jackets which fit. We settled on a second hoodie which was
somewhat thicker and could be used as a second layer while hunting. While not the best option, we decided it was
adequate and continued the trip.
The night before opening morning,
everyone on the lease can be found checking and comparing game camera
photos. I joined in as my camera card
was pulled earlier in the evening by a fellow hunter. Hope was low for an impressive buck as game
camera photos from my hunting area contained at best a small eight point. Regardless, we were optimistic and my son and
I looked forward to hunting from the stand I built the season prior.
My uncle Ralph suggested I hunt an extra
deer stand he added a few months prior. The
stand was setup with a corn feeder but no game camera. As a result, we did not know if deer
frequented the area but not have much to lose.
His only words of caution were to bring a can of wasp spray as he had
not checked the stand in a few months.
After some deliberation, I decided to
hunt my uncle’s extra stand. We discussed
the location of the stand on the 1,000-acre lease. The directions to locate the stand seemed
simple enough but being new to the lease I was a little uneasy about finding it
in the dark the following morning.
We woke early the next morning and drove
to an old barn which was the starting point of the directions the night
before. As my son and I started the expected
300 yard walk to the stand, it began to rain quite heavily. Within minutes, I began to question the
decision as we were both quite wet with no deer stand in sight. We eventually located the stand after walking
near 10 minutes in the rain.
My son waited with our gear under a
nearby tree as I checked out the stand.
Frustration increased further as I checked the inside of the stand with
my flashlight and found it filled with yellow jackets. The cold kept them huddled in the nooks and
crannies along the ceiling. I debated
heading back to my stand to try to salvage the morning hunt but decided with the
rain it would not be worth it.
As the rain continued, our best option
was to kill the yellow jackets. We could
then potentially still hunt and get out of the rain. After using almost a full can of wasp spray,
the floor of the stand was covered with dead yellow jackets. I brushed them from the stand floor to the
ground outside and very hesitantly crawled into the deer stand with my old son.
The stand began to warm up as the sun
rose. The warmth brought the remaining
yellow jackets to life and they could be heard buzzing along the ceiling and
corners of the stand. My son and I were at
full alert alternating between watching for deer and yellow jackets. There were many more yellow jackets than deer
but thankfully it was still cool enough that they crawled the walls where they
could be easily killed rather than flying around.
Between bouts with yellow jackets, a
large buck chased a doe across the top of a nearby ridge. I reached for the binoculars to get a better
look just as my son called out beside me holding his ear. The buck distracted us long enough for a yellow
jacket managed to sting him on the ear.
We handled the yellow jacket and after a quick check of his ear found
the buck and doe he was chasing were long gone.
We watched carefully for the buck to
return for the next hour. There were
other bucks which arrived with a few does but they were not as impressive as
the buck from earlier in the morning. My
son was eager to get a buck and we discussed the option of taking another deer
visible instead of waiting for a chance at the one we saw earlier in the
morning. Since it was the first hunt of
the year, I was not ready to compromise and it was still early in the morning
so we waited.
We watched as the deer in the field begin to lay down as it continued to rain lightly. The rain paired with a headwind were working in our favor to keep the strong smell of wasp spray from impacting the hunt. My doubt of seeing the early buck began to grow when he suddenly appeared at the top of the ridge again. He appeared in a small gap between two shrubs looking in the direction of the stand.
He quickly vanished earlier in the
morning and I expected the same this time.
I skipped reaching for the binoculars and went to directly to the
rifle. He stood proudly between two shrubs with his head held high. Even
without the rifle scope, his antlers looked like a crown on his head and was
larger than any other buck I’d seen in my short time hunting. The situation was almost unbelievable at the
moment.
I collected myself and prepared to shoot
the buck. He was quartered towards me at
almost 200 yards. I considered waiting
for a better shot but did not want to miss my opportunity. I aimed carefully but when I pulled the
trigger only heard a slight click. I removed the round and found the rifle had
misfired.
My mind returned to when I was hunting
years before at the same age as my son.
My rifle misfired then when attempting a shot with one of my father's rifles. I assumed then it was a problem
with the round and attempted another only to have it happen two additional
times. The last attempt resulted in a slightly
delayed fire causing a bad shot on the buck.
Young and inexperienced, I went after the buck to put him out of his
misery only to continue to experience misfire problems. Following that hunting trip, I decided
against hunting for the next twenty years.
I loaded another round and refused to be
distracted by the oddity of the situation. I regained focus, pulled the trigger, and a
loud bang filled the deer stand. The
buck spun around quickly and sprinted off out of sight into the shrubs. We watched carefully but did not see him
emerge from the shrubs. We waited a long
30 minutes questioning if I had by chance missed the buck before leaving to
check.
We went straight to the stop he stood
when I took the shot. We found blood
there and more in the middle of the shrubs which were immediately behind
him. We walked the ridgeline looking closely
for more blood but found none. We walked
all along the top of the ridgeline as I refused to accept that I missed.
In the end, we returned to where he
stood when I took the shot. As I looked
back toward the stand attempting to determine were I went wrong, I saw the
white belly of the buck. He entered the
shrubs and then headed down the hill towards the stand. He fell only 40 yards away in a place blocked
from view by a large tree.
My dad was finishing with his morning hunt
when I texted him about the buck. He
quickly came over to assist in loading up the buck. The rain made the field quite difficult to
cross in the truck so we drug the buck almost 125 yards to an area where he
could be loaded into the truck. We then
quickly returned to the house to discuss the morning hunt with others.
While sharing the story with everyone, a
family friend who hunts with us suggested I take him to the Cabela’s in
Waco. Cabela’s was offering a free
shoulder mount to the best buck taken opening weekend. I doubted the buck would be the best in the
area despite being my best buck. In the
end, I decided it was worth the drive.
I placed the buck in the freezer for the
remainder of the day and that evening.
The next morning, I loaded him into the back of the truck and headed to
Cabela’s. They measured the buck in the
parking lot of the store and told me at that point I had the largest buck
entered at that point.
The next several days I waited rather
impatiently for the outcome of the contest.
On Monday evening, I was called and told I won the contest and would
receive a free shoulder mount from Fortson’s Taxidermy.
Fortson did an excellent job on the
shoulder mount and the buck now decorates the wall in my living room. He is positioned in the same way he was that
morning at the top of the ridge. My son
an I relive the hunt each time we look up at him and it will be a great hunting
memory we keep forever.
