Originally, my plan was to bow hunt Saturday morning and afternoon, then to duck hunt Sunday morning due to the rain in the forecast, then go back to bow hunting on Monday and Tuesday.

I got Veteran’s Day off as a holiday so I had requested to take Monday off and make it a 4-day weekend. My plans changed Friday night, when my friend called and said they were going to duck hunt Saturday morning now instead of Sunday.

It was my choice whether I would join them or bow hunt like I had originally planned. After some mental debating, I decided to duck hunt with them since I hadn’t duck hunted at all in the first short season in October. It ended up being a good morning hunting and I came home with enough ducks to make a couple of meals.

Before going to bed on Saturday night, I checked the weather forecast and the rain was not supposed to start until closer to noon now. I was pretty tired from waking up early to duck hunt so I set my alarm for the morning and said I would see how I feel when it goes off.

I ended up waking up before my alarm went off by a few minutes. After checking the weather forecast, I decided to hunt. The wind was supposed to be coming from the east, which is very rare, and I have a tree stand where an east wind would keep my scent away from the any deer coming from checking a bedding area for does that are in heat.

My preparations for the hunt (I pack a thermos of hot cocoa when its cold) got me behind schedule and I left my house about 15 minutes later than I wanted. I snuck in to my stand just as it was getting light enough to see where I was stepping to avoid breaking big twigs and making a bunch of noise.

Just after 7:00 I looked to my right and saw something shining in the goldenrod about 150 yards away. After a second, it moved and I noticed its tail flicker so I knew it was a deer. I pulled up my binoculars and could see it was a buck as it walked through the goldenrod but it was difficult to see him clearly. He was walking my way so I kept watching and he got into a less thick area so I could see his head better. I could tell he had big enough antlers that I would shoot him if he came in. This prompted me to stand up, get my bow down off the hanger, and spin around to be able to shoot to the side of the stand he was on.

He kept working towards me along the edge of the goldenrod until he hit the corner of the field. In the corner of the field, I hoped that he would take the trail that runs 10 yards in front of my stand. He didn’t though, he turned left at the corner and started to follow the edge of the field, working uphill. I thought he had made his choice and I was going to watch him walk up the hill until I couldn’t see him anymore. I grabbed my cell phone and took a picture of him as he was visible in a gap of trees on the field edge.

Right after I did, he took a hard right turn and cut into the edge of the woods about 50 yards away. The buck kept walking through the brush on a line that would take him behind my stand. As he walked behind my stand, I had to spin around so that I would be able to shoot if he gave me a shot. It was then that I finally got a good look at his antlers, as he stepped out from being blocked by the tree my stand is in and I could see it was a gnarly rack with split brow tines! I told myself to block his antlers out and to focus on making a good shot. He was starting to face away and stopped to sniff something on the ground so I drew my bow. I couldn’t believe he didn’t notice it and I took a deep breath to relax and focus on executing my shot. The buck spun to keep checking out whatever it was that he was sniffing and gave me a quartering away shot.

I put the pin of my sight behind his shoulder and squeezed my release. My lighted nock turned on in flight and I watched it impact. The arrow penetrated almost to the fletchings and the buck took off immediately. He ran uphill through the woods before circling out into the field and I lost sight of him as he ran across the field. I looked at my watch and it was 7:30.

I have permission from the field owner to track deer on his property so I sent him a text message that I had hit a buck with my bow and that the buck had ran across the field headed towards his barn. I followed up with I was going to wait 30 minutes before I got down to start looking for blood. So I got my thermos out and had a cup of hot cocoa as I waited the half hour to go by. At 8:00, I climbed down and to make my backpack lighter, I went to put a trail camera up that I had packed in the morning. As I was getting the strap around the tree, I felt my phone vibrate. I fished it out of my pocket and saw a missed call from the neighbor. I called him back but it went to voicemail. As I hung up, I heard the neighbor’s side-by-side start up. I could hear it getting closer, so I walked back to my stand, untied my bow from the pull-up rope, and threw my backpack on. I walked out onto the main trail as the neighbor parked by my truck.

“Hey, your buck’s dead in my yard! And he’s huge!”

I walked down and talked to him. He had been hunting on the other side of the road from his house and decided to come back to give me a hand tracking when I texted him. When he pulled into his driveway, he spotted the dead buck. That’s when he tried to call me but I missed the call. He told me to drive my truck around the corner and to pull into his driveway to get the buck.

When I pulled into the driveway, I saw the buck laying not far from the edge of the driveway. Finally, I let my eyes look at his antlers and take in the sight of them. The neighbor and I talked about the buck and how neither of us had any trail camera pictures of this buck. It shows how bucks will start moving crazy distances during the rut in search of does that are in heat.