This bow season has been a tough one to prepare for. My son went into his first full season of 9U travel baseball this year, which started in March and ended the last weekend in October. I usually spend a lot of time early in the year scouting and setting trail cameras trying to locate a shooter buck for the upcoming season, but with this year’s baseball
schedule, I was way behind when bow season began.
November 10th, my sons and I finally got a chance to get a trail camera in place hoping that we are not too late to catch a nice buck cruising for does. The reason I used the statement, “not too late” is that in my area, the magic always happens for me around the last weekend of October through the first weekend in November. November 20th I finally was able to get my blind up and brushed in so we would be ready to hunt Thanksgiving morning.
I had to work the first 3 days of Thanksgiving week and we had no shooter bucks showing up on our trail cameras. The only buck that did happen to show in the daylight was an ugly three point that seemed to come through our property every day. On November 23rd, the I tell my boys, “If we don’t have a shooter by Friday evening, I’ll taking the ugly 3 point because he’s old and at least we will be able to put some meat in the freezer.” They were excited either way.
Thanksgiving morning my two sons, Lucas 11 and Liam 9, and I hit the woods with the highest hope that we were going to see an ugly three point, at the most. It was a cool, 30° morning with a good frost on and the sky was clear as a bell. At approximately 8:50 a.m. we are sitting there in our blind and watching 4 does feed. Out in front of us I catch a glimpse of some movement coming towards our blind. I notice the deer’s rack appears to be a decent size, but he was in some brush with his head down. At this point he’s about 50 yards away in the underbrush, but I can tell he’s headed our way.
I immediately tell my boys, “There’s a decent buck coming this way so get ready”. I’m doing my best pointing the deer out to the boys and trying to be as discreet as possible as the deer gets closer. I start thinking to myself, “this is a possible shooter buck. You better pick your bow up, put your release on and get ready just in case”. Just then, this buck decides to walk in 20 yards closer and raises his head. He turns to look back up the hill and my jaw just about hit the ground! This deer had a tall rack with good mass and was everything you could hope for as a bowhunter.
The does spot the buck and begin to run off straight over the hill behind the blind which then makes the buck focus straight in our direction. I think again to myself, “This big boy is going to leave here before I can even get a shot”. For some reason, the does running off causes the buck to move even closer to us in the blind, so I start to draw my bow. As I am drawing my bow, I am still doubting I will get a shot, but prepare for it regardless. I sit there at full draw for about 30 seconds, but of course it felt like an eternity. I start telling my boys, “He’s going to leave here”, over and over, trying to prepare all of us for the disappoint that big whitetails seem to be able to be able to hand out regularly. It was then one of my boys leans up and whispers in my ear, “You’ve got him dad, calm down”. My boy must has sensed I was more nervous than I have ever been while bowhunting.
As soon as my boy whispered that in my ear, my instincts kicked in and I immediately calmed down as the buck turned broadside at just 30 yards. I then released the most perfect arrow that I have ever shot at a deer! I hit the buck directly behind the front shoulder, at the perfect height, and a complete pass-through. My sons and I just about turned that blind over celebrating after watching the beautiful buck take his last run!
Before this hunt, I could only hope for an encounter like this with a buck this big. Then, having my boys with me was such a bonus! I love being in the woods but honestly, I was frustrated that I was not getting any shooters on camera. That just goes to show you that you can’t put all your faith in what your trail cameras are showing you, especially in November!
I will be forever grateful that we hit the woods that morning. We were able to make a memory that we will never forget all because this unexpected visitor showed up.
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