Minnesota buck taken this weekend - gross 165 3/8
12-12-2005, 11:28 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: MN USA
Posts: 1,489
Minnesota buck taken this weekend - gross 165 3/8
I really don't have time to post the whole story yet, but it was interesting to say the least, hopefully I'll have some time to tell the story later today, just wanted to show everyone my buck from the last weekend of muzzleloader season here in Minnesota. I'll see if I can get more pics too.
!!
12-12-2005, 02:25 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: MN USA
Posts: 1,489
RE: Minnesota buck taken this weekend - gross 165 3/8
Thanks for all the compliments guys, it truly means a lot, now here is the story behind it.
I can already tell that this is going to be a fairly long story, so hopefully you guys will have time to read. Anyhow, this weekend was the last weekend for muzzleloader season here in Minnesota, given that I haven't hunted more than 2 hours so far, I was determined to get out on Saturday morning come hell or high water. I wake at 6 am and look out the window and my heart sinks, its 20 degrees and cloudy with wind from the NW at 25-30 mph with gusts to 40 mph. I came to the conclusion that there is no way I am going out in that. Well daylight rolls around and after watching an hour of hunting shows on TV I look out the window again thinking that my stand would be somewhat protected from the wind, hey why not give it a shot? What do I have to lose? So off I go...
I get to my stand about 7:30 and it sit for2 1/2 hours and it is freezing!!! I'm thinking what possessed me to think that I would see a deer on such a miserable morning. I figured that I would give one more grunt and wait another 10 minutes, then call it a day. Well I never even had the grunt put away when I heard brush cracking 50 yds to my North. I look over and there are 3 of them there. I couldn't tell what they were because the brush was so thick. They moved around in there alittle and finally I got a look at them, they were massive!! All three of them, I couldn't believe it. I waited until I could pick out the one I wanted to take, then waited to see if he would give me a shot. About 5 minutes have passed, my heart is pounding then he moved to a tiny clearing that exposed his vitals. I shot, then watched him mule kick and slowly walk away. I thought this was really strange, then I saw it, a 1" thick branch about halfway from me to the deer was sheered completely off (it was only about a 30 yd shot).
My heart sank thinking I just missed the biggest deer I ever saw in the woods. I wait about 15 minutes and go over to where he was. To my surprise I saw hair on the snow, I was so excited. Upon closer inspection, it was white hair, again my heart sank. I knew right then that this deer wasn't going to be easy to find. I waited about 2 hours and went and got some help to start tracking him. As we started to track, it began to snow heavily. I seriously could of sat there and cried, you couldn't see 100 yds ahead for all the snow that was falling. Ordinarily, I would have waited much longer to try and track this deer but with the snow falling, I knew out only hope was too start tracking him now and hope that we can jump him when he was bedded down, otherwise the new snow is going to bury every bit of blood and tracks that comes from him.
We followed a great blood trail for about a mile and a half, jumping him twice but not able to get a shot off. All the evidence pointed to a gut shot, which really had me upset, that damn branch...aarggg!!! Eventually he leads us to a thick swamp and thats where the blood trail ends. We search that swamp high and low for the rest of the day but nothing. Too much snow had fallen and we lost him. I was sick to my stomach. That swamp was about 30 acres in size and there was no guarantee that he was even in there. I didn't sleep much that night, although I did a lotof cursing under my breath.
The next day I decide that I had to try again, I round up 3 guys and back out there we go. We got to where we had lost the trail and started doing circles from there, just has we had done the day before. I really didn't expect to find him but I had to go back, if anything to try and relieve some of the guilt. We weren't searching for more than 5 minutes when one of the guys shoot "Here he is!!", if you guys could have seen the excitement from me, it would have been priceless...
. I go over and there he is laying there expired. I take a look at his rack and I could hardly breath...
After all the excitement I took a look at where he was laying. To my disbeliefhe was only about 50 ft from where we lost his trail. We had allfanned out the day before and no one even sawhim laying there. There was even tracks from us the day before that was 20 ft away from him!! I couldn't believe that we didn't find him then, the cattails where aboutthigh high and we had walked right by him.
It was huge relief to find this guy, and an incredibly large burden off my shoulders to say the least.
I can already tell that this is going to be a fairly long story, so hopefully you guys will have time to read. Anyhow, this weekend was the last weekend for muzzleloader season here in Minnesota, given that I haven't hunted more than 2 hours so far, I was determined to get out on Saturday morning come hell or high water. I wake at 6 am and look out the window and my heart sinks, its 20 degrees and cloudy with wind from the NW at 25-30 mph with gusts to 40 mph. I came to the conclusion that there is no way I am going out in that. Well daylight rolls around and after watching an hour of hunting shows on TV I look out the window again thinking that my stand would be somewhat protected from the wind, hey why not give it a shot? What do I have to lose? So off I go...
I get to my stand about 7:30 and it sit for2 1/2 hours and it is freezing!!! I'm thinking what possessed me to think that I would see a deer on such a miserable morning. I figured that I would give one more grunt and wait another 10 minutes, then call it a day. Well I never even had the grunt put away when I heard brush cracking 50 yds to my North. I look over and there are 3 of them there. I couldn't tell what they were because the brush was so thick. They moved around in there alittle and finally I got a look at them, they were massive!! All three of them, I couldn't believe it. I waited until I could pick out the one I wanted to take, then waited to see if he would give me a shot. About 5 minutes have passed, my heart is pounding then he moved to a tiny clearing that exposed his vitals. I shot, then watched him mule kick and slowly walk away. I thought this was really strange, then I saw it, a 1" thick branch about halfway from me to the deer was sheered completely off (it was only about a 30 yd shot).
My heart sank thinking I just missed the biggest deer I ever saw in the woods. I wait about 15 minutes and go over to where he was. To my surprise I saw hair on the snow, I was so excited. Upon closer inspection, it was white hair, again my heart sank. I knew right then that this deer wasn't going to be easy to find. I waited about 2 hours and went and got some help to start tracking him. As we started to track, it began to snow heavily. I seriously could of sat there and cried, you couldn't see 100 yds ahead for all the snow that was falling. Ordinarily, I would have waited much longer to try and track this deer but with the snow falling, I knew out only hope was too start tracking him now and hope that we can jump him when he was bedded down, otherwise the new snow is going to bury every bit of blood and tracks that comes from him.
We followed a great blood trail for about a mile and a half, jumping him twice but not able to get a shot off. All the evidence pointed to a gut shot, which really had me upset, that damn branch...aarggg!!! Eventually he leads us to a thick swamp and thats where the blood trail ends. We search that swamp high and low for the rest of the day but nothing. Too much snow had fallen and we lost him. I was sick to my stomach. That swamp was about 30 acres in size and there was no guarantee that he was even in there. I didn't sleep much that night, although I did a lotof cursing under my breath.
The next day I decide that I had to try again, I round up 3 guys and back out there we go. We got to where we had lost the trail and started doing circles from there, just has we had done the day before. I really didn't expect to find him but I had to go back, if anything to try and relieve some of the guilt. We weren't searching for more than 5 minutes when one of the guys shoot "Here he is!!", if you guys could have seen the excitement from me, it would have been priceless...
. I go over and there he is laying there expired. I take a look at his rack and I could hardly breath...After all the excitement I took a look at where he was laying. To my disbeliefhe was only about 50 ft from where we lost his trail. We had allfanned out the day before and no one even sawhim laying there. There was even tracks from us the day before that was 20 ft away from him!! I couldn't believe that we didn't find him then, the cattails where aboutthigh high and we had walked right by him.
It was huge relief to find this guy, and an incredibly large burden off my shoulders to say the least.