Third Times a Charm

November 7, 2007

With Ranger filling his Illinois tag early, Dana and I jumped behind the camera to film my Uncle Chris and our good friend Jrod. We captured some awesome video with the rut beginning to get right but were not able to get any “shooters” within range. Uncle Chris and Jrod had to leave for a scheduled dirt track race in Mississippi so they invited us to try our luck at an Illinois trophy.

Our hunt began on November 6th. Dana was behind the camera and I was the “shooter”. The deer were moving all day with bucks chasing does left and right but no mature bucks were seen. The next day started out calm and cold but would soon heat up. Almost immediately after daylight, we had three bucks dogging a doe. The bucks were grunting at every step with their mouth wide open. Around 9:15, we spotted two bucks chasing a doe seventy yards out in front of us. I gave out a couple of grunts with my natural voice and one of the bucks turned on a dime and headed in our direction.

The buck quickly closed the distance and I settled my pin on his shoulder. I let an arrow fly and to my amazement, I missed! I could not believe it! For the next hour, I must have run that hunt through my mind a hundred times. The next couple of hours got really slow with very little deer movement. Around 11:00, Dana was feeling sick so we discussed climbing down and heading back to camp. Being the trooper she is, she decided to stick it out. We felt like it was just a matter of time before we had a “shooter” filter through.

Around 1:00, we caught movement and out of nowhere at thirty yards comes a doe running with a “shooter” right behind her. We barely had time to get the camera on the deer before they were right on top of us. I got my sight on the buck pretty quick but I was waiting for Dana to give me the ok. As soon as she did I let an arrow fly. SMACK! The arrow found its mark. The buck bolted and ran about thirty yards before stopping. I could see my arrow sticking out so I knew I must have shot him high in the shoulder. I quickly grabbed my range finder. It read 50 yards. I reached for another arrow and quickly was at full draw again. I let another arrow fly. SMACK! The second arrow smoked him right through both lungs. The ten point went only twenty yards before collapsing.

It would have been very easy to give up that morning after my miss or even when Dana was feeling a little under the weather but we stuck with it and it paid off!