[Gerald]

Where to begin….

The weather Saturday morning was great……~ 40 deg., no wind and lots of stars out at 3 AM when I left the house heading to Sherburne WMA. I was hoping this trip would be better than my last 2 hunts because I had not seen any Deer while spending about 13 hours in the woods on those hunts.

My first order of business was to check my new trail camera that I had put out on my last hunt. I was in a hurry when I put the camera out and my main objective [besides trying to get pictures] what to hide it as well as possibility.

I quickly checked…..and there were several pictures, one being a nice size deer [big hind quarter] but it’s head was hidden by the grass. This picture was @ 6:43 AM 2 day earlier so I needed to get in a tree before it got any lighter.

I moved to a little different area from where I hunted last time and, I found a good tree as it was getting light. There were ditches filled with water on either side of this area. I could see maybe 100 yards in some spots, but any shot would most likely be under 50 yards. After getting settled in the stand 25 feet up, I put on some more clothes over the T-shirt I was wearing. While doing this I thought I saw “ripples” in the water ~90 yards away, near where I had crossed just a few minutes ago. I watched….but saw nothing.

About 10 minutes later, I got a glimpse of a deer not far from where I saw the “ripples”. When the deer passed a slightly more open spot……I saw horns” sticking up above the head and pointing forward.

The Buck was not coming my way. I looked and looked but did not see the Buck again. I then got out my grunt call and made a couple of calls…..maybe I could get him to come????? After 3 or 4 minutes, I called a little louder ……what could it hurt? After another few minutes, I got out my Doe call….maybe that was what he was looking for?

I had just about given up on this Buck thinking he probably only had one thing on his mind, when I spotted a Buck 60 yard away and coming my way. It was too thick to see if this was the same deer. He stopped but there were too many limbs and my gun was still pointing down. We had a “stair-down” for what seemed like a long time, before he looked off to one side. When he looked the other way, I got the gun ready as he started walking.

When he passed an open spot 50 yards away he took his last step after the .243 cal core-lock bullet found it’s mark in the neck. The bullet passed thru part of one lung and clipped the top of the heart. From the stand, all I could see was 2 points on one side.

It was not until after the shot that I realized that the Buck had been following a Doe. She was about 30 yards in front of him and maybe 25 yards from me. She only ran a little bit and stopped to look back….wondering why her “date” went to sleep. She stayed around for about 15 minutes before I lost sight of her and climbed down.

As I walked up to the Buck, the first thing I noticed was how big the body was. Then I checked the rack…..7 points, 11 inches wide and 10 inches tall. Not as big as some but another “trophy” public land buck for me.

Then comes the work……300+ yards back to boat with the stand and gun to get the deer cart and take off most of my “cold” weather clothes because the sun was shinning brightly and getting warmer.

After field dressing the deer, I put the Buck on the “home” made cart. I was not sure if this cart would survive the trek with this much weight. He filled it up. I estimated he weighted about 175 lbs but later when another hunter looked at the deer he said this deer was bigger than a 185 lbs deer he had seen a few days ago. He said it would go 200+…..I had the deer positioned with a lot of weight on the handle and the cart did fine but I can’t say that for the “operator”….he had to take several breaks along the way while trying to bypass downed limbs, logs and Cypress knees.

What a beautiful hunt…..that lasted 20 minutes