My first Season

Hello all,

My first hunting season was spent in Park Falls, WI. This place is an awesome place to hunt white tail and grouse. There is an abundance of public land and plenty of deer to choose from.

I remember a specific hunt that yielded a huge deer with not so huge horns. A friend, Adam Canik, had set me up in a tree stand on public land. He had used the tree in years past and had already cleared a spot for a treestand in a huge spruce tree.

In the state of Wisconsin it is legal to bait deer and I regularly used this tactic to increase my odds of seeing and shooting legal deer. This day was no different. I was sitting over some corn.

I had hunted this stand about half a dozen times with my archery equipment and taken a couple of does during earlier hunts. But this day was different.

About 1 hour before dark I heard a deer approaching from behind my stand and I did my best to sit quietly. As the deer appeared below my stand I strained to see the deer.

As I watched I noticed that the deer was a drop-tine 10 pointer. I spared no time getting my bow ready for a perfect broadside shot at about 10 yards away. As I drew the bow I didn't notice any undue noise from the equipment or the clothing as I came to full draw. But, as soon as I began to anchor for the shot... the deer ran off in the other direction. I was puzzled by his flight.

About 5 minutes later I heard some more crunching behind me as another deer appeared below my treestand. This deer was a much bigger bodied deer and it walked in as if it owned the place. When it arrived at the bait pile I counted 4 points. I was surprised and thought that I was imagining that this deer was larger than the last and decided to wait a bit in case Mr 10 Point was coming back.

Sure enough Mr 10 returned in just a couple more minutes and walked past the 4 point and behind some bushes, all the while never providing a shot. The 4 point deer was much bigger bodied than Mr. 10. None the less, I waited for this deer to go to the corn pile which he never did. I could see his rear quarter only.

After about 5 minutes I noticed that the 4 pointer started nervously looking over his shoulder as if he had sensed something dangerous behind him. I started to worry that if I didn't take the shot that was in front of me that I wouldn't get this chance again.

I came to full draw, carefully placed the pin on the upper chest area and released the arrow. The arrow raced to the target and did it's intended job. I heard the deer fall about 5 seconds later.

The deer went about 30 yards straight down a hill. He was about 230 lbs and man was he hard to get out of the woods never mind into my pick up. I almost could not pull him up over the tailgate even with the deer drag wrapped around his neck. I tried to get him up for about 10 minutes until I finally with all of my might and all of my weight got him up. I weigh somewhere around 200 lbs myself.

I was amazed by the body size of this deer. I have never taken a deer with a bigger body than this and I believe it will be a long time until I do again.

I enjoyed this hunt more than most because of the deer activity and because it was my very first buck. I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to have taken this 4 point. His horns are mounted to a plaque in my sons room where I am reminded, every time I tuck him in at night, of a great hunt in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

God Bless You All,
Sean