Feature Story - Trophy Buck
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2006 Deer Hunt - 10 Point Buck - First Deer - B&C Scored : 156 5/8 Gross
Location: Simcoe County Forest, Southern Ontario, Canada.
Date: Oct 5, 2006
Habitat: Conifer/ Hardwood mix. Logging activity, past two winters.
Weather: Partly sunny, cool, light N/E breeze.
Lunar : 2 days before full moon.
My Setup: Excalibur Exocet 200, Carbon Laserbolts, 3 blade Wasp Boss (100Gr.) broadheads. Here is the story. Strategy: Hunt later in the day near mast food source close to bedding area’s. I had scouted this particular location the previous December, noting the trail patterns, tree rubs and a doe bedding area. Thursday Oct.5, 4:00 p.m. I hung a stand 10 yards off a trail, 50 yards from a large Oak tree and about 400 yards from that doe bedding area. The stand was 18 ft. up and had good conifer cover. All was quite until 6:15 p.m. I spotted two Does coming in behind me to my right. Armed with a Doe tag and had never got a deer yet, I was already with the crossbow. They where about 35 yards out with a lot of trees and branches in the way, so I just stade still and watched them circle around in front of me along a field edge. The first Doe continued past me through cover, still not presenting a shot. The other Doe stopped, looked straight at me, and I’m thinking she is going to pick me off. Then suddenly she bolts and runs towards the large Oak tree to my left. I’m thinking the games over, so I stuck the EasyGrunter in my mouth, gave off a couple of short grunts. The two does where running around in circles, 50 yards out in front of me. Then I here a rubbing tree sound behind me to my left. I looked over and I saw what had gotten the Does all excited .A large antlered Buck was slowly approaching, right on the trail I setup off of. He stopped to rub another tree and I just could not believe this Buck was in the rut already. My back and left side where concealed with conifer branches and had the wind in my favor. As the Buck walked into my shooting lane, I called out a " mee" to stop him. The Buck froze in his tracks as I put the cross hairs on a spot, behind the right shoulder and squeezed off a shot from 10 yards. The Buck did the donkey kick and then took off out of sight. I was now experiencing one heck of an adrenaline rush, as my chest was just a thumping. A few seconds later I heard a crash in the direction he ran to. A total of four Does had come in there and scattered off in different directions. I waited a ½ hour before climbing down as I thought things over and settled down. I had seen deer do that kick on hunting videos, indicating a good hit in the vitals. I found my arrow right away, stuck about an inch in the ground. It was fully intact, a complete pass through, covered with bright red blood. It was a really good blood trail to start with. You had the main trail as well as blood on saplings waste high on both sides. I marked the trail and followed it for about 50 yards. It was getting too dark to continue so I backed out and headed home. After a sleepless night thinking about this brute and worrying about the coyotes getting him, I resumed the search at first light. I found him a mere 30 yards from where I had stopped looking. It was a relief to see that the coyotes had not got to him yet, as I reflected on my good fortune. I then processed him as help arrived to drag him back to the trailer. We did not have a scale available but estimated a field dressed weight of approximately 250 pounds. I ended up with 161 pounds of meat from the butcher. I owe my success to many hours spent in the bush, scouting and patterning the deer and all the reading in hunting magazines and practicing good hunting methods. The crossbow got me back into deer hunting, so it was extra special to harvest my first deer with the Excalibur, in my second season with it.
- Steven Mitchell
