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A Close Encounter, a Giant on Trail Cam, and a Dead Buck
The title of this blog sounds the start of a joke, but all jokes aside, it has been an extremely eventful first few days of hunting the rut this year. It all started when I sat the top side of a draw and had a cruising buck step out in bow range, only to have him walk straight at my stand and then look up when he was at 9 yards. It was a buck I call “Curly” and he is 4.5 years old. My goal prior to season was to shoot a 4.5-year-old buck or older solo filming. Here is a video of the encounter:
What happened, was that I saw the buck, pushed the button on the video camera to turn it on, then grabbed my bow to prepare for the shot. I stood up, only to see the camera had not turned on, so I had to push the button again and by this time the deer is walking into the edge of the field. He stays along the brushy edge of the opening, then walks directly at me. He was going to work a scrape, but he must have picked up my outline in the tree. We had a standoff and he finally decided I was too much of a human shape for his liking, and he bounded off in the cover nearby. Since then, I have picked him up on my cell cam 100 yards from that stand, so he seems unaffected by the encounter.
After that hunt, I checked one of my nearby trail cams and was extremely excited to see this buck step back into my life.
This is a buck I called “Slingshot”, 2 years ago, because he had a unique bend in his main beam that would have made for a perfect Slingshot. Here is a screen shot from a trail cam video where you can see what I mean:
Back in 2017, I probably would have shot this buck if he gave me an opportunity, but I’m sure glad he didn’t, because he sure has blossomed since then!
The next day I found out that a power line company was going to be cutting brush under power lines along the north border of where I hunt. I gave the operator my contact info in case he needed any help and then he called me asking if I had shot a buck and not found it because he just found one dead. Upon inspection, it appears the buck had been gored by another buck, as there was only one circular hole into his abdomen with no exit. This buck was clearly a fighter because a week prior, he broke off his left G2.
It was a 3.5 year old buck I called “Chewy”, because the last 2 years of sheds I had off him were chewed up by squirrels. R.I.P. Chewy. Gone too soon, but not forgotten. Just like anything in life, you win some, you lose some. I try not to get too attached to any deer, because there are 1,000 different ways a deer can die.
Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll be in a tree stand almost every day. Good luck out there everyone, the best time of year is finally here!
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