Trophies

My quest for something bigger

I am not a dyed-in-wool bowhunter, but I prefer to harvest most of my deer with a bow. In Illinois you are, by law, allowed only two antlered deer regardless of choice of weapon. I had not shot a buck with a firearm in five years, but the 2009 season turned out to be different. The third week in October I arrowed a nice 9-pointer, but I resolved to hunt for something bigger with my last buck tag. Through the course of the rut, I passed on several small bucks and had close encounters with a least three bruisers. One of the bruisers was possibly the biggest buck I had ever had an opportunity to harvest with any weapon. At full draw and the buck broadside at 25 yards, a few twigs seemed to obscure the deer’s vitals so I passed on the shot. I watched what would have been my biggest buck ever follow a doe off into the woodlot. So I entered the first half of split shotgun season with a buck tag in my pocket. But the three-day opener ended without me having seen a single shooter buck. Two weeks later the second gun season began. A four-day session that would conclude the general firearm season. I tried a different location on Thursday and didn’t see a single deer. The next two days were spent fruitlessly back at the location where I had seen the giant buck. The last day, Sunday, arrived and I headed back to the same location for a final hunt. Having endured long days on stand and some pretty frigid temperatures, I was thinking of only hunting half a day and then calling it quits. After taking a break for lunch I felt like I just had to go one more time. I opted to try a stand that had not been hunted the entire season. The problem with this stand was that it required me to wade through waste deep water and negotiate fast currents to get to it. Two o’clock found me belted in and settled comfortably 20 feet above the forest floor. Three hours and the season would be over. The turkeys entertained me for nearly two hours when at five minutes to four I spotted a deer coming my direction. A doe, then another, and another. In all, five does casually browsed by me, a mere 20 yards away. “No,” I told myself, “you’re not shooting does tonight.” Even though it was more action than I had seen the entire gun season. The does drifted away and I checked my watch to see that it was 4:15 P.M. “I know he’s coming,” I told myself. I wondered if I could be like those guys on T.V. that always seem to shoot the giant buck the last day, the last hour of the hunt. “Sure you can,” I told myself. Somehow I meant it, too. At 4:30 P.M., with a mere 30 minutes left in the season I heard a twig snap over my right shoulder. It was him. The big buck from archery season. He was walking slowly and alertly behind the big Honeylocust tree I was sitting in. Now my heart was pounding. When he moved from my sight behind the trunk of the tree I pivoted to my left on the seat so I could attempt to make the shot. But the safety belt scraped the bark of the tree behind my back. I heard it. He heard it and stopped walking. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was looking for the source of the sound. It seemed like forever but he started walking again. I rotated on the seat, looked for the buck, and brought the gun to my shoulder in one motion. He was looking directly at me when I fired. As he raced away into the woods I realized how excited I was. Maybe more excited than I had ever been in my 37 years of deer hunting. About 150 yards away, I found my buck. Unbelievable is all I can say. The biggest buck of my career, and a buck I had seen before, and to shoot him in the last half hour of the last day of the season. It just doesn’t happen to me. One thing for certain is that the drag back across the waist deep water didn’t seem so bad hanging on to those antlers! The buck was not a heavyweight; only field dressing 180 pounds. But he features 12-inch long split G-2s. They made him very recognizable in the woods. He is a basic 6 X 5 but has broken brow tine on one side. I’m not an official scorer, but with an 18” inside spread and long main beams, and add to that very good G-3s and G-4s I’ll estimate his gross score to be near 170 B. & C. It doesn’t really matter though, because the experience is worth more than any number on a score sheet. I couldn’t add that high if there was column to total up the memories.—Michael E. Smith

Species	Whitetail
Location	Illinois
Sportsmen	Michael
Age	45