Stories Written  The Way The Hunters Lived Them

Page:

  1. Gary's First Traditional Harvest

  2. Cal's First Traditional Harvest

  3. What I Did On A Friday After Work

  4. My Carrot River Bear

  5. An Unforgettable Afternoon

  6. Longest Moose Hunt

  7. Buck's Bog

  8. Didn't Duck Quick Enough

  9. The Last Hour Of The Last Day

  10. Ten Year Bull

  11. The Mickey Mouse Buck

  12. Buckie The Wonder Decoy

An Unforgettable Afternoon
     

Another unforgettable afternoon hunt it was. It all started when I met my pal Gary to go Whitetail Hunting in our usual hunting spot. We met at the field edge and picked the stand locations we were going to hunt. Gary went to the southeast corner of the field and I went to the west side of the field. We would be about 400 yards apart.

Not much happened for the first couple of hours. A few deer crossed the field every once and a while but that was about it. The wind was doing all kinds of goofy things. "But what's new" As the afternoon went on every once and awhile I would glass back at Gary's location hoping to see some action at his stand. There were some deer wandering to the west of his location but nothing real close.

Well about 45 minutes before we ran out of light I heard a light grunt somewhere around me. Before I even looked I started to reach for my Falcon recurve. When my left hand touched my bow I looked over my right shoulder and there a Whitetail buck was looking right at me. I paused and when the buck started moving I lifted my recurve off its hanger. Now I looked over my left shoulder and he was looking right at me again. He put his head down and started walking in front of me, as soon as he stepped behind a tree I raised my recurve and began to draw. I let out a soft grunt and he stopped about 18 yards broadside. I stared at the spot behind his shoulder pulled my cedar arrow to full draw and released. The arrow hit just slightly lower than I was looking but it still looked like a good shot.

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The buck ran out of sight down the field edge, but I never heard it crash in the bush. I presumed it ran further down the field and I would play it safe and wait several minutes before getting out of my stand. When all of a sudden I noticed a doe looking at something about 50 60 yards down the field. I wondered if it might be the buck I just shot. I couldn't wait anymore, so I got out of my stand very quietly and peeked down the field edge. I could see the doe just passed my buck lying in the field just 50 yards away.

"Was that any good or what"

I nocked another arrow and walked slowly up to the buck just encase it wasn't down. The 5x5 Whitetail was definitely down. The well-placed 125gr.Wensel Woodsman broadhead did its job. I back tracked his steps looking for my arrow when all of a sudden I heard Gary say "Was that any good or what" apparently he watched the whole thing from 400 yards away with a good pair of binos. I think Gary was just as excited about the whole thing as I was. That will be one of the main reasons I will never forget that afternoon.

I can only hope some day I will get to watch Gary do the same thing. Gary hasn't taken anything this year yet but I'm sure his chance is coming soon. " Good Luck Pal"

After remembering the hunt and sharing it with Gary we walked back to our trucks to get our recovery gear and cameras. We called a couple of friends to tell them the news and another good friend (Kevin) hunting the north end of the field came over to congratulate me. We took some great pictures to remember that moment and took care of the recovery.

I want to thank Gary and Kevin for giving me support and being there to share this hunt.

 

 

Written by: Calvin Briggs
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