“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I’ve never seen anything quite like it! Once onboard, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering.”

“This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest. We headed for Taku Harbour. Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say ‘thank you’ and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help.

My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn’t know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!”

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I’ll never forget my first encounter

with deer scent. When I was a youngster just starting to deer hunt I sat on a hill with one of the older members of our party. As we sat down in the high grass he pulled out a small medicine bottle and took the cap off it. Being a naive’ greenhorn I asked him what it was. He explained it was a home concoction of “doe-in-heat” juices and other vile substances that would cover up our scent in case a deer gets downwind from us. Like I said, I was naive’ and bent over to take a good whiff of it. Suddenly my nostrils were filled with such an odor that I almost got whiplash jerking my face away. It was a stench that made a skunk smell like Chanel No. 5. I spent the rest of the evening watching the little bottle to make sure it didn’t spill on me.

Over time, commercial deer scents have become very popular, due partially to the increase in bow hunters. Outdoor catalogs offer seven different brands of scent.

Regardless of the brand, most scents fall in three categories. The most popular are scents made of urine from does in estrus, which is supposed to attract love-sick bucks. Another is territorial scents made from buck urine and musk which will bring in bucks thinking another is moving in on his territory. Then there are the shielding scents that cover up human odor, but have no special attracting power. These scents often are made from fox or skunk urine.

Even though it is not new, more and more hunters are trying antler rattling to attract territorial bucks. I have talked to enough hunters that swear by it to believe it can work. They often tell of rattling for a few minutes and suddenly see a buck trotting towards them with no caution at all. The interesting thing is many rattling experts are using artificial antlers rather than the real thing. Some say the artificial ones produce a consistent sound, unlike natural antlers that will change due to time and humidity. Artificial antlers are available in most hunting stores and catalogs.

Manufacturers have really enhanced the deer calling technique. There are grunt calls to anger territorial bucks, the bleat call to entice curious deer and the snort call to control bucks. An expert hunter will use these calls in various ways to get deer to do all sorts of things.

I don’t believe these tools are completely necessary to bag deer; I’ve always done OK and never used any of these items in the past. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t do better with them or have lots of fun experimenting with them.

Who knows, if I don’t do well the first part of season you may find me walking through the woods blowing on calls, shaking fake horns and smelling like a you know what.

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The photographs of the piebald deer shown below are real, although the animal was apparently taken in East Texas (not Wisconsin), and it was not sold for $13,000.

According to the Texas Big Game Awards website, “Bellville resident James Curtis took this unique piebald whitetail in Palestine opening weekend of deer season” in November 2008. The Buck Manager website provides the additional information from Curtis’s wife that:

The deer was actually killed November 2, 2008, on a privately owned ranch outside of Palestine, Texas. The piebald deer scored 138 5/8 gross with a total body weight of 195 pounds. My husband is getting the deer full body mounted. Anyways, I just wanted to give you this information since there are lots of emails going around saying the deer was harvested in Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Georgia just to name a few. One email even says that the deer was sold to Cabela’s for $13,000! It is crazy.

Prez. @ Davis. J. Hennes, LLC

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P.S. Never saw that kid again….

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I don’t remember how old I was when I finally got to hike along. Up before dawn and getting dressed in my brother’s hand-me-down hunting clothes was so exciting. We didn’t wear camo or the orange vest and hat. Those weren’t the stylye in the 50′s – just dull grays and browns. Off we went up the hill to the ridge where he planned to sit and hunt. It was then that I finally understood why I had to be bigger. Some of the logs we climbed over were three feet in diameter and of course the ground was not level. Indeed, I did need longer legs and a stronger body to keep up.

When we reached the first stand, we sat and waited and waited for what seemed like forever to a nine or ten year old who wasn’t used to being still that long. Then it was on to the next spot. That is how the day went. We didn’t see any deer that day, but it didn’t matter to me, because I knew that you didn’t see deer everytime you went out. Tramping through the forest and experiencing the views from the ridge tops was its own reward. When we got back to camp in the afternoon I’m sure I was exhausted from the long and tough hike, yet I know that I would never have admitted it. I didn’t want anything to keep me from being able go again. I felt proud that I could keep up.

Now, I can take my turn swapping hunting stories around the campfire.

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Our family has had the same deer hunting land north of Greenbush, MN since 1971. My Grandpa and Dad have taken several nice bucks on the land over the years and finally in 2006, I got my first wall hanger in the cabin. Usually, the group is Grandpa, Dad, my two brothers, and myself. We always see plenty of deer and usually one or two really nice bucks on opening weekend of rifle, but in 2008 we hadn’t seen a thing on Saturday or Sunday. Also, this year was different because my brothers were not able to make it and Grandpa decided it was nicer sitting in the cabin than in a stand. So, it was just Dad and I through the weekend as well as Monday and Tuesday. We had decided before that we would plan on leaving Tuesday afternoon.

Our land is about 120 acres and we have 7 stands on the property. My dad usually hunts the East field and I usually hunt the North East field. Also, for the last 3 years, I have used my Dad’s old 30’6, since he bought a new rifle in 2005. This was the same gun I used to take the 8-pointer in 2006.

So, like I said, we haden’t seen a thing on Saturday or Sunday and when Monday rolled around, it was still quiet as quiet could be. That night in the cabin over some beverages, we discussed how we couldn’t believe that we hadn’t even SEEN a deer. We talked about leaving the next morning after cleaning up, but decided that we would hunt until about 1:00 the next day and leave after that. How I wish we would have left right away Tuesday morning.

So, the next morning we cleaned up, had breakfast and went out the stands a little later (about 8:00). We planned on being out there till 1:00 and then go home. It was a nice day, low wind and sunshine and about 20 degrees. The field that I have my stand in (the NE) is about 150 yards long and 50 yards wide. We had an earth mover out to make it about 4 years ago, so there is a burm of dirt about 10 feet high on the North East side of the field and a couple pine trees in the middle. My stand is on the South West side of the field, right in the middle of the tree line and directly across from the pine trees and the burm. I spent the morning watching the ruffed grouse mess around in the field and thinking that we were probably going to get shut out. Then, at around 11:45, I heard a stick crack. I looked up and all I saw was a NICE rack just over the burm, directly across from me. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t see the body, but it was one of the nicest 8 point racks I had seen. Probably just a year away from being a 10. Well, the buck climbed up to the top of the burm and just stood there, looking at me at eye level. The body was BIG. There was some grey around the neck and I thought that he might dress out around 200lbs. I froze and thought about moving slowly for my gun that was leaning up against the railing of the stand, but I decided to just watch for a bit. After about a minute stare down with this guy, he looked down and walked into the field moving just a little more south and west than my stand. As he was going behind the pine trees in the middle, I grabbed the rifle and scoped him up. I couldn’t believe my luck and smiled when I got him in the cross hairs…I mean, all I could see was brown! So, as he stood broadside from me at around 20 yards, I chose my spot behind his right shoulder and pulled the trigger. Well, I had the feeling of complete shock when all I heard was CLICK. I looked down at the chamber and noticed that when I had put the shell in that morning, it hadn’t closed fully. Freaking out now, and with the deer looking right at me wondering what the hell was going on, I tried to eject the shell and load another. Well, the first didn’t eject and the second one went in just fine. By now, I’m in full panic mode. I could have thrown my gun at this buck and instead I saw him slowly scamper to the other side of the field and disappear into the brush. I was so upset by this point and had no idea what to do, so I took off to my Dad’s stand to tell him what happened. When he saw me coming he knew something was wrong and asked me “what happened?” I told him and he said to me blank faced…”Oh, yeah. That gun sticks every now and then. All you had to do was nudge it closed”. Well, after that advice, I went back to my stand and worked myself up so much about missing the biggest deer I had ever seen that I gave my breakfast to the field below my stand. What could’ve been the biggest deer I’ve shot and have it happen right before we left after sitting and seeing nothing for four days, turned into the first shut out in probably ten years. The ride home was hell.

Hopefully, next year I’ll have the story about how I nailed that S.O.B that got away in 08′.

-Ben Doran

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