November 23, 2007- Arkansas Double

After hunting the first two months of the season with bow and arrow, Van and I were looking forward to taking a little break and doing some rifle hunting. The Arkansas rifle season opened on the tenth of November but with our trip to Nebraska and other plans, we had not had the opportunity to experience any rifle hunting. That was about to change.

Thanksgiving was finally here and that would give us a great opportunity to get in the woods. Being the weekend warriors that we are, we jump at any opportunity to spend more than a Saturday and Sunday in the woods. After work Wednesday evening, we were on the road heading North. After arriving at camp late, we unloaded our gear and hit the sack.

The next morning, we were late getting to our stand and we would pay the price. As Van was getting his gear out of the truck, I started my walk to the stand so I could get the camera ready. I was bumping deer left and right. When I reached the trail that lead to the stand, I could see a deer standing about 75 yards down the road. I reached for my binoculars and immediately could see that it was a buck. After further inspection I could tell that it was a shooter. I looked behind me to see where Van was. He was about 75 yards walking my way. I motioned to him to hurry up. When he got to where I was, I told him that there was a shooter standing at the end of the road. He was unable to get on the buck before he ran off. We continued to the stand and saw very little the rest of the morning and evening.

The next morning we decided to go back to the same stand. Two weeks prior to our hunt, my dad checked our Cuddeback camera that we had set up in the area and noticed a couple of nice 8-points. We were hoping to meet up with one of those bucks.

Similar to the previous morning, we were late getting to the stand and again we would pay the price. As we reached the trail that leads to the stand, we saw a deer standing on the opposite tree line of the food plot. As I raised my binoculars I noticed he was a shooter. As Van got into position to take a shot, the deer eased into the woods. Once again we had missed out on a great opportunity. We made our way to the stand and got settled in for the morning’s hunt. Unlike the morning before, the wind had calmed and the temperatures were cooler.

By 8:00 a.m. we had several does and small bucks visit the food plot that morning when a buck that we were very familiar with stepped out. Dagger! This was a buck that a good friend of ours, Maurice Melancon had an encounter with during the archery season. Maurice elected to pass on him but from Maurice’s description of the buck, he was one we needed to take out. Van and I got into position to take the shot. I was shooting Van’s Browning 280 and the buck was standing at 250 + yards so after a quick discussion on where I should aim, I was ready. I placed the crosshairs a hair higher than normal and squeezed the trigger.

BOOM! Dagger’s rear end immediately hit the ground followed by his upper body. After a few kicks, Dagger was done. After a brief celebration followed up with some post interviews, we decided to hunt a little longer. The rest of the morning’s hunt was pretty quite so we decided to climb down and take a look at Dagger. As we stood up to open the door to the box stand Van saw a deer step out into the food plot. He raised his binoculars and said, “It’s a buck! It’s a buck!” I grabbed my binoculars, took a look and said, “It’s a shooter! Do you want to take him?” Van said yes so we got into position. The big 8-point stepped out in the same location as Dagger. When he saw Dagger lying their motionless he knew something was not right. We only had a few seconds to get on him and take the shot. The buck turned and began walking back toward the tree line where he had come. Van settled the crosshairs on the buck’s shoulder and confirmed that I was ready. After confirmation he squeezed the trigger. Boom! The buck dropped but we watched in amazement as the buck crawled out of sight. We were confident that he had expired. After more celebrating followed up by more post interviews, we climbed down for the recovery.

As we approached the downed buck, we could see that he still had his head up. Van positioned himself for another shot. Before he could get into position, the buck must have got a second wind because he blasted out of there like a rocket. We knew we had to get on him quick. We went to the spot where he entered the woods and quickly found blood. After trailing him for a hundred yards or so he began to turn towards the east. This was bad news for us because he was headed straight for a river.

The banks of the river are very thick so I thought the buck would bed up rather than cross the river. As Van and I topped the ridge, we began glassing the thickets along the river. Nothing! Where could he be? I looked across the river and there two-thirds the way across the river laid Van’s buck. The celebration began! Quickly, Van began to wonder how we were going to get “his” buck out of the river. I told him he was going to have to shed some cloths and get wet. After touching the water with his hand, Van was very adamant about not swimming.

After talking it over, we decided that Van would stay with “his” buck and I would go back to the camp to find some kind of boat. After looking for an hour I was only able to find a kayak. It would have to do. I returned to the river and after launching the kayak, Van paddled over to the buck. Van tied a rope around the buck’s horns and to our surprise, he was very easy to work with. As Van was making his way back to the bank, I drove back to camp to get the Kabota. We would need to use the Kabota’s winch to pull the buck out of the river bottom. It definitely made the task much easier. After pulling the buck out of the river, we drove back to the food plot and took some pictures and did some recovery interviews where we originally shot the Arkansas double!