This is a hunt that almost didn't happen. Last night after watching the "weather news" my wife asked me which stand I'm going to in the morning. My answer - "I'm not sure I'm going. It's supposed to be 16 degrees, and I might just sleep in. If I'm not in the house when you get up, you'll know where I am". I've been getting up early every day, and it was starting to take a toll on me.
Luckily, I changed my mind and did go out! I have been making a whole series of "rookie mistakes" this fall, even though it's my 45th year in the field. I've had bucks spot me after rattling them in, I had a good buck in Wisconsin spot me as I was drawing on him, etc. It's been that kind of fall...
Right at shooting light this morning a doe walked by me at six yards. Alright, here we go! We know what follows does during the rut. Another "rookie" mistake is coming! Ten minutes after she leaves the area, a nice 8 pt. buck follows exactly where she walked. Here comes the mistake. Since the temperature was 16 degrees, I had my hands in a "muff". The buck either heard me or saw movement, and immediately stopped. After a few seconds he simply turned around and vacated. I was starting to feel kind of sorry for myself...
My stand is located in a strip of trees which separates a harvested bean field from a harvested corn field. I look out into the bean field and spot at least seven deer feeding and moving around. They aren't going to come my way, and since I didn't spot a buck to try to call, I settled back and watched them feed away from me.
At 7:10 I noticed a doe in the corn field being followed by two bucks. As if on cue, she leads them right towards me. I kept telling myself no more mistakes. Get ready and this is going to happen.
It was a beautiful scene as the 9 pt. buck passed below me. He had a lot of frost on his back, and I kept zeroing in on a spot behind his front shoulder. At nine yards he was quartering away and I smoothly released the arrow.
Immediately I could see that my arrow was exactly where I'd been looking! I could also see that he was losing a lot of blood. The buck that was following him was a 6 pt. and all three deer headed off. "My" buck stopped at about fifty yards and just stood for a few seconds before disappearing in some cedar trees.
After about fifteen minutes I slowly packed up and backed out of the area. On my way home I called my good buddy Tim to help with the deer. I was fully expecting to see a very dead deer after the shot placement I'd seen. An hour later, we were back and you could follow the blood trail at a run if you wanted to.
I was using cedar arrows and a Magnus two blade 125 gr. head. I've never had a blood trail as good as this one!
A side note to the bow I was using. Back in November, 1972 I arrowed a big 203# 10 pt. Minnesota with this bow. It is a Red Wing Hunter that I had painted (like everyone did in those days!).
The bow was 57# @ 28" and was much too heavy for me in many years. About a year ago my son Jay (JJB on here) offered to reduce the weight on it and refinish it. He took it down to 48# and refinished it! What a beautiful job! Now I had a bow that I could use again! I thought it would really be cool if I could take a "40th anniversary" buck with this bow.
Thanks you for reading my long winded account of a hunt that almost didn't happen, but is one that I'll remember for a long, long time.
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Topic: Dad has a story from Iowa to tell...(new pic pg. 5) (Read 877 times)
