I was quietly sitting in my tree stand on a brisk Friday afternoon in November, here in central Wisconsin. I was day dreaming about having a Friday fish fry and a brandy old fashion for dinner. I felt myself drifting off as there was no deer action to be seen at all.
Suddenly, I heard a noise. It was the noise that I had been waiting for. It was the sound of a crossbow firing. My daughter Atlanta was sitting roughly 150 yards from me and I heard her shoot. I sat there patiently waiting for the text from her. After what seemed like forever, I finally got the text. "I shot a buck" she wrote. I told her to sit tight and I'd be right over.
I lowered my bow and climbed down quietly. I gathered my gear and made the short walk to her stand. When I got close she tried to talk but she could barely get a word out. She definitely had buck fever and I smiled the biggest smile. Once she calmed down she was able to climb down her stand and come by me. A quick high five and hug and then I got all the details.
She said " the buck was just under 50 yards when I shot. He jumped at first, but then walked away very slowly and I think I saw it go down over in the thick stuff to my right. I also, think I heard some gurgling noises". "That's a good sign" I said to her. Lets give him a few minutes but I think we are going to find him rather quickly.
After 10 minutes we decided to start the track job. We had to make our way around a large fallen oak and once we got around it and took a few more steps I noticed some blood on the ground. We stopped and observed the area where Atlanta saw him last and could not locate him at that time. We took a few more steps and Atlanta said " dad, he's right there. That's him". She noticed what looked like a deer laying on the ground, but we were still 40 yards away and it was hard to tell. Now, this is where it gets funny. This is the moment I will never forget.
We watched the deer for a minute and it was not moving. I took a few more steps and I was confident that it was not a deer, but it was a rock. You see, we have large boulders and rocks on our land as we hunt on a huge ridge. I was pretty sure it was a rock, but then after looking harder I changed my mind back to "It's a deer". Then it was a rock. Then it was a deer. I must have went back and forth 3 or 4 times as it was very hard to tell with the low light conditions and how it was laying. I was looking back at Atlanta as she was about 10 feet behind me and all of the sudden she said "Dad, Dad" and pointed towards the deer. I quickly turned my head and the deer was trying to pick up his head. He was still alive, but obviously could not get up. We were still 40 yards away so neither one of us could take another shot. I looked to the ground and could see a blood trail like no other. I thought to myself, how is this guy still alive. There was so much blood on the ground. Once he laid his head back down, we moved in on him quickly and quietly. We got to within 10 yards and Atlanta was able to put another bolt in him and put him down for good. Her buck fever kicked in again as we knew he was down.
This was Atlanta's biggest buck to date. A beautiful 3 1/2 year old 7 pointer. One of the G2 antlers never grew. She has put in a lot of time and finally sealed the deal and I could not be happier for her. After we both calmed down we completely started laughing about the whole it's a buck, it's a rock thing. It was so funny. I would have put a lot of money on it that it was a rock. I guess my eyes just don't work like they used to.
We sat there and waited for backup, because there was no way that her and I were dragging this deer out of the woods. As we sat there we got caught up in a great moment. We realized that this is the first deer taken off of this particular piece of property. This was her grandfather's land that we inherited when he passed away 3 years ago. Nobody has ever really hunted it and being that she spent a lot of time here as a little girl with her grandpa cutting wood and such, she really wanted to harvest a buck off of this property. Mission accomplished. We both feel that he was looking down on her smiling. Wayne was an awesome father in law and a wonderful grandpa. He is deeply missed and now we have one more awesome memory to share because of him.
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