"Bullwinkle"

[Wudstix]

This is the story of a big buck I hunted for 5 1/2 years(78-82).  Early college years, I was lucky to own a bow.  This was pre-cell phone days.  My father had just landed a job as a professor at ISU in Terre Haute, 1977.  So we moved from PA to IN.  Moving from the Eastern woodlands to the wide open corn and bean fields, laced with drainage ditches and a river or two was a totally different world for me.  Started my search for someplace to hunt.  Driving down dirt roads, especially those that lead to a creek or river.  Since everything was so "wide open", I figured my Ben Pearson 45# recurve wasn't enough.  I went to the dark side for about three years.  Started with a Bear Whitetail Hunter, then switched to a Browning Tracker solid wood riser compound.(77-79)
I found some good looking farm land that was literally at the end of a dirt dirt road.  The abandoned RR track ran along the edge, and I figured it would be OK to hike/scout along that.  So I walked along it in both directions with a pair of binos to look for deer and sign.  I covered the area along the RR from one paved road to the next, probably 2-3 miles.  The other side of the creek was owned by the Milner's who I knew from church.  So I hiked in on their side and along the creek.  Good deer sign was all over.  So back to the other side I go to ask the farmer if I could hunt his side of the creek.
Knocked on the door and Mr. Ogden invited me in.  I asked if he minded if I bow hunted his land, and that Mr. Milner had granted me access.  He just stared at me.  Told him I'd leave all gates in position I found them, open or closed.  I'd pick up any trash I found and carry it out, etc,,,  SILENCE.  Then he said, "Sure you can hunt, this is a coal company lease that I farm, but you are the first person to ever ask to hunt.  I explained that back East hunting without permission was illegal and dangerous.  He said you'll be fine.  You have my permission to remove any stands you find.  EUREEKA!  I told him what my truck looked like and that I'd park off to the side past his gate.
The first time I saw HIM was in 1978, I had stumbled onto a couple good trails that run along Honey Creek that looked like cattle trails.  Also, found an old apple tree that I could crawl up into and perch.  One day I was sitting in the tree about 8 feet up, out of the corner of my eye I catch movement coming my way.  As the buck passed under my feet I drew the Bear and focused on a spot.  The buck stopped at knife distance and looked over his shoulder, I glanced too.  There was "Bullwinkle"!!!  He turned and bolted, catching my motion.  The first buck started ahead and I turned my head back and released.  Hit was a little farther back, but the 2117 disappeared to the vanes.  That was the biggest buck I had ever seen in the woods.  Good solid 10 point with antlers outside his ears.  The tree started to shake, so I figured I'd better climb down.
     

[Sam McMichael]

I have run across two deer that would fall into the Bullwinkle class. Damn! I didn't get either one of them.

[kbetts]

I have run across two deer that would fall into the Bullwinkle class. Damn! I didn't get either one of them.

Same here.  One walked straight away from me the day before gun season one year at 40 yds.
The other one I shot and had an arrow "failure".  I hit bone, but it shouldn't have trashed the arrow.  I found him eventually. 

That deer took me out of the trad world for awhile.  I couldn't shake it.


Great story......carry on.

[blacktailbob]

Photo photo please. Gets us pumped for fall...and it's really close now. 

[Wudstix]

The buck had bolted out with his tail tucked.  Within about 15 yards he crossed Honey Creek, which was knee deep.  I crossed and followed his hoof prints and drops of blood every couple of steps.  The satellite head must have poked out the belly.  He went through some thick stuff, blood was fairly easy to follow, but it was getting darks.  I didn't have a flashlight being the rooky that I was.  Followed across the bean field and to the RR track, to the end of the blood trail, where there was a "gentleman" kneeling over a nice buck dressing it.  There was an arrow sticking in the neck.  I asked him if he had seen my arrow or noticed the wounds on the buck?  "Nope" he says.  "isn't that my arrow laying in the bush at the side of the RR track?" I ask.  "I shot it last." He says and pulled back his jacket to show me the butt of a pistol.  "Guess it's you deer" says I and walked out the RR in the dark to my truck. 
If that was his truck parked by mine it had a flat tire!  Told Mr. Ogden on my way out and believe he called police about a trespasser, who may be armed and bowhunting.  That ended my first hunting season in Indiana, but I had seen HIM!
As I flashed back to the glimpse I got, my mind remembered the second deer was wider, taller and probably had more points.

[Wudstix]

Don't have any pics of "Bullwinkle", didn't own a camera or have a cell phone yet. (1978-1982)  Not sure if anyone has pics.  There was one other guy who hunted Honey Creek near were I did that had tales of a Monster buck.  We talked and agreed, then talked in code about the mile stretch of river bed.  Was using a dead owl we had both seen in the creek as a reference, for us.
 

[kbetts]

 I think I'll start a thread once I can track down some photos.  There is alot to learn is this trad game.  Mental fortitude must rank high.  I almost gave it up.

Then the winds changed, the chill hit the back of my neck and I couldn't stay away.  And here I am.

[Wudstix]

Year 2 -1979.  This year was somewhat frustrating.  Mid-July was my only sighting of "Bullwinkle".  Was scouting with binos across bean field with 6x30 Steiner's and saw him feeding at about 150-160 yards.  Watched him until dark.  Long enough to see he was 6x6, with brow tines @6-7" and G2's @12-14" as symmetrical a rack as I have ever seen.  Width @18" conservatively.  What a magnificent deer. 
Hunted regularly, as much as school would allow.  Saw some huge tracks which I presumed where his, but who knows.  Noticed that he seemed to avoid the apple tree, or pass it at night.  If his tracks were in front of the tree, they were not there when I arrived for an afternoon sit, but would be there as I climbed down from a morning hunt.  It was easy to ID them it looked like a calf had walked by. 
Had not found any sheds of his size, or heard of anyone killing a huge buck in the area. 

[rastaman]

 

[Wudstix]

Year 3 - 1980.  So close!!!
Scheduled my classes, so I could change at my truck and leave my Browning Tracker or Damon Howatt Hunter hanging in Mr. Ogden's tractor shed and I could pick it up on my way home from school, or grab it and do an evening sit.  This was during my shift back to recurve.  One morning hunt I squeezed in before an exam I had at 1100.
I sat in a deadfall along a couple trails by the stream.  This deadfall allowed me to get up 5-6 feet and helped with scent control.  The breeze was coming from the RR across the bean to the creek at an angle from Northwest.  I had shooting at the trails toward the field and also on the other side of the creek which would be @20 yards.  I figured that with the 65# DHH and how I had been shooting with it, that was a good set up.  A doe and young deer walked by after first light, but I really wasn't after them.  I sat as long as I could and still get to class.  Professor was used to me showing up in camo pants, muddy shoes and a clean T-shirt.
Finally, got down and headed along the edge of the trees.  Then there HE was.  Walking along in the beans.  I knelt down feeling exposed in the open woods.  HE didn't seem to notice.  There was a slim window between the trees to the field.  I told myself if he stops in the window I'm gonna shoot. 
Trying to block out the antlers from my mind, focus on a spot, a tuft of hair.  My mind was calculating; 15 to the field edge is he 10-12-15 into the field???  I'm struggling trying to focus, drawing the bow as he stops in the window.  He looks away, HE's far, how far.  Raise your arm a tad more.  String slips away and the arrow is gone.  White tuft of hair drops, as the arrow just misses behind his front leg.  Then HE is blasting across the bean field, never stops until HE is across the RR and doesn't stop there.  Watched HIM run for 1/4 mile or more.  HIS tail never came up and HE didn't look back.
Stepped off to were the arrow was stuck in the mud; 38 paces.  That's my longest miss to date.
 

[Wudstix]

Year 4 - 1981
This year I had found one of his bedding areas.  It was in a ticket of small brush trees with trunks about the size of my forearm and spaced about a foot apart.  Just the perfect spot about 40 yards square with a thin stripe of woods around three sides bordered by crop fields, on North, West, and East.  The South had Honey Creek and 100 yards plus of wooded land.  Through scouting I found there were four main trails HE favored, two on each side of the creek, but occasionally HE would just wander down the middle through the crop fields.  This year was corn, so glassing from the RR was not as effective.
It was this year that it dawned on me that all my sightings of "Bullwinkle" had been on Wednesdays.  The other guy I knew had seem him confirmed that all his sightings in the Ogden farm area were on Wednesdays, as well.  He had also seen HIM farther West near the golf course and closer to town about a mile, or so down stream.  It wasn't surprising to me that I had never found HIS, or many other sheds in that area.  The creek flooded a couple times a year and kept the farmers out of the fields.  Mr. Ogden planted the small 1/2 acre field on the West side of the bedding area, but rarely harvested it because the deer cleaned it up fairly well before harvest.  He told me it wasn't worth a couple bushels of corn or beans to harvest it.  He also told me to kill as many deer as I could.
For some reason the Wednesday (3 days) before the season opened I decided to go check out a new tree stand that I had put in a tree a bit farther West on the South side of Honey Creek.  As I sat there in late afternoon, along comes "Bullwinkle", out for a stroll and passed by at 13+ yards.  He was now 7x7 and still incredibly symmetrical.  His bases were about baseball bat handle sized.  Points were massive and thick.  I restrained myself from screaming!!! 

[Wudstix]

Year 5 - 1982
This year had to be the one.  I had this deer figured out, I thought.  Hunted hard and was confident we would meet.  Well we finally did, but more on that in a bit.
Had always been careful with staying clean and entering with the wind in my favor.  Sitting until dark and sneaking out with the wind.  This year I ramped it up a notch.  I continued to enter along the powerline that ran along the Eastern edge and come in along the creek.  Flip flopped which side of the creek I hunted randomly, but always with the wind in my favor.  It would happen this year, I just knew it.
Over the years I had passed on a couple nice deer, but this year was the test.  Had several decent bucks in range, but with a one deer limit I knew as soon as I shot one, "Bullwinkle" would come bed down by my truck.  So I stuck to my guns, so to speak.
By now the Damon Howatt Hunter had become like a sixth finger on my hand.  I was spending more time at The Wilderness Shop, an archery shop in town run by Tom Rothrock(?)  Mostly just hung around and listened to the talk.  The other guy and I continued to talk in code.  When I moved back to recurve in mid-1980, I had Tom make me a nice set of Cedar arrows to mount my new Snuffer heads I started shooting.  They sure are nasty heads and have accounted for several critters.
Had not seen HIM all year and just before Thanksgiving on a Wednesday I was hunting in a blow down/trash pile from the latest flood.  That morning was overcast and damp.  Everything was so quiet.  Then I caught motion on the other side of the creek.  At about 35-40 yards there HE stood.  I slowly got my Steiners on HIM and am convinced I saw 8 points per side.  Each side almost a mirror image of the other.  He stood there for several minutes and I saw HE had a bit more sag in HIS back.  Slowly HE walked on to the West along the creek, and I never saw HIM again.  That deer will remain in my heart forever.


+++++++
There was a game biologist who worked at the bow shop, since they were also a deer check station for the state.  The other guy and I both talked to him separately.  He said our descriptions and impressions of Mass, Length of beams and tines, plus mass and width were almost identical.  He estimated based on our estimations that "Bullwinkle" could have been 190-200", that is a number we'll never know for sure.  He certainty deserved the moniker we put on HIM. 
These pics are of the field view from were I usually parked my truck, the powerline that gave access to the creek, and the abandoned RR.  Notice the turkey in middle of pic.  Never had many turkey when I was there.  Farm house is gone and most of the land above flood plane is houses now. (thanks for fixing my pics)

[rastaman]

Good story and thanks for sharing it!   

[durp]

 Great read...tks for sharing 

[A Lex]

Great story Wud
Thanks heaps for that.

Those sorts of encounters are good hey 

Best
Lex

[tradslinger]

Was hoping for you all of the way! great story. My son(16 at the time) lost a buck to a jerk that simply got it to his truck and left with it. it happens. These are the memories that need to be shared for others to enjoy. Thanks

[beemann]

Nice write up.  Some of the best memories don't include a kill.  Well done...

[Wudstix]

The field pics were taken the last time I visited my mom.  April 22, took a trip down memory lane, so to speak.
 

[A Lex]

Nice write up.  Some of the best memories don't include a kill.  Well done...

This, absolutely.....

Well put Bryan 

Best
Lex

[Homey88]

What a great story! Gets me pumped up for hunting!