The Bubba Buck It was November 28th, 2013, a cold, crisp morning to be sitting in the stand with a little bit of frost on the ground. This was the first time that I had laid eyes on this buck as he was tending to a doe. I watched him for 5 hours following her around the woods and scare off two smaller bucks, one a 4-point, and the other a small 6-point. I did not get a shot off at him this day, so the next morning you can guess where I was. Sitting in the same stand November 29th, 2013. I seen him again with the same doe and the small 4-point for 3 hours running around the woods. I did not get a shot at this buck in the 2013 season, but knowing that he was around gave me hope for this 2014 season. In 2013, I got several trail camera pictures of him in our woods, so when it was time to put out the trail cameras out in the woods in 2014, I was pumped to see what the cameras were going to capture. Almost every week my dad and I were checking trail cameras, eagerly waiting to see what was going to show up. On October 26th, it was like Christmas. Seeing him show up on my camera made me happier than a kid in a candy store. His G2’s split and he grew an extra point on his right side; it’s clear to see in the picture but for some reason I continued to believe he was still a 10 point. I knew that he had grown between 2013 and 2014, but I had no clue that he grew as much as he did. On November 7th I came home from work and as I walked in the door, my sister excitedly told me that she had shot my buck. My stomach dropped. She said she hit him at 20 yards and it was a good shot but her and my dad said that they were going to wait until the next morning to go track and recover it. I was torn. On one hand I was happy that she had shot her first deer ever, and what a deer it would have been, but on the other hand, she shot the deer that I was after this season. As I faked a smile and said I was happy for her, she then replied with, “No, I’m just messing with you, but I did miss him tonight”. She had gotten a shot off at him at 20 yards but she must have pulled high on him because I found her arrow the next morning about 40 yards out in the field with no blood or hair on it. My sights were set back on him. Knowing he was in the area, but having to work the evening shift, Saturday November 8th, I was up late and was not able to hunt the evening hunt. I woke up to the sound of my alarm ringing on my phone November 9th at 5am. Being tired, I tossed and turned in my bed debating on not going out with my dad that morning. I must have done this over one hundred times before through the past years, where I just turn the alarm off and headed back to bed. But on this morning for some reason I said, “I'm going to kick myself if I don’t go out and dad does and he sees my buck and I’m not there to even get my eyes on him”, so I got my butt out of bed, ate breakfast, and got ready. The morning was perfect. One that every hunter dreams of. There was a slight breeze coming out of the West just gentle enough to feel it on your face. The ground was crisp with a light early morning frost and there was a slight overcast but the sun could still shine through it. My dad and I decided to hunt opposite ends of the little 10-acre woodlot where we have had all the encounters with this buck in. My dad was sitting on the North end of the woods and myself on the South. As we walked through the cut bean field to the East of the woods under the cover of the early morning darkness, I sprayed down my boots and the bottom of my pants with some Tinks #69 Doe-In–Rut Buck Lure to cover up my scent as I walked into my stand. When I climbed up into my treestand and got situated, I sprayed some more Tinks #69 on the back of the tree I was sitting in incase any deer came in from the open bean field to the East of me. We made perfect timing getting into the woods, about 20mins before daylight. My dad picked up some radios with the earpiece microphones attached to them so that we could communicate back and fourth while in the treestands this season, which made it handy if we saw a deer heading in the other person’s direction. After waiting about 30 minutes for the sun to get high enough in the sky to cover the forest floor with morning light, I noticed a little bit of movement coming from the center of the woods where it is full of fallen dead timber. When I pulled up my binoculars I could tell that it was a buck. The 2014 season I was trying to hold out as long as possible on shooting a buck because I wanted to shoot a mature buck. But knowing that our little 10-acre bush doesn’t hold any deer in it after the first snowfall, I knew my chances were running low. So when I saw that little movement of antler coming from the center of the woods, I thought it was a decent size 8 point that we had trail camera pictures of from earlier in the season. When I saw him, I got on the radio and whispered, “Dad there’s a nice 8 point buck in here and he’s coming my way”, to which my dad responded with a calm voice telling me to, “take your time and relax, and don’t rush the shot”. Watching the buck follow the old beaten down four-wheeler trail that runs through the middle of the woods and right under my treestand; as he got closer and closer and what seemed like minutes that it took him to walk the hundred yards, I pulled up my binoculars and saw his back G2’s and from that point I knew that he was the buck I had been after. Seeing those G2’s, I was literally speechless and couldn’t respond to tell my dad that I was wrong about which buck he was, so my dad had to sit in suspense, waiting to hear back from me over the radio. The buck took a sharp turn about 30 yards away from me and started walking to the East to the edge of the woods and cut bean field. I practiced all summer shooting my bow at 40 yards, so I knew I was confident taking a shot at 30 yards, but the problem was that I did not have a clear shot or shooting lane in front of me with all the small sapling trees growing. I remember having my bow in my hand and hooking my release onto the string and saying, “God, just give me one shot, please! I promise ill make it count!” and just like that, the buck turned on a 90 degree angle and started walking my way again. He was smelling the air and at this point he was downwind of me; luckily I prayed that Tinks #69 on the tree behind me to cover my scent. With my legs shaking like a leaf, I pushed them up against my treestand seat to stabilize myself as he came closer and closer. I drew my bow back as he passed by the biggest tree right beside the shooting lane that my dad and I cut the previous spring, and he stopped broadside at 15 yards. He put his nose up in the air, and then down to the ground, and at that moment my pin was on his vitals and I released my arrow. I heard the “thwacking” sound that every hunter wants to hear, and I watched the arrow hit behind his right shoulder as I watched him run out of the woods and into the cut bean field laying down 120 yards away from my stand. I immediately got on the radio and told my dad, “I shot the big one and it was a good shot!” With buck fever and adrenaline running through my body, my emotions ran wild. As soon as the buck laid down in the field, I called up my mother, brother, sister, and sent out a text to all of my hunting friends and family and told them that I shot a big buck. My dad could see the buck laying in the field from his treestand on the north end of the woods and tried to keep me calm as we waited. Back and fourth my dad and I talked over the radio for the 45 minutes that we let him lay. It seemed like hours had past within that time, and then my dad decided to come get me as the hunt was over so that we could take up the blood trail even though we could see my buck laying in the field. I called up my friends who lived in the area and my brother and they all came out to help recover the animal. As I walked up closer and closer to the animal, I could not believe my eyes at how big he was. It was the second deer that I had ever successfully recovered, the first being a button buck that I shot on one of my first years hunting in Michigan. My buck scored GROSS: 187 2/8” and NET: 183 7/8” officially. Having past history with this buck and everything that happened that day to make it all come together, I still cannot believe how amazing it is to have harvested such an amazing animal. I cannot put into words the feelings I had, and the “high” that I was experiencing when I released that arrow and watched it hit its mark, but I will never forget it. My family has had permission to hunt this property that I took this buck on for over 20 years now, and this is the first deer that we have successfully harvested and recovered off of it. I would like to give the landowner a big thank you for allowing my family and myself the ability to hunt his property. I would also like to give a big thank you and congratulations to the taxidermist and now a good friend of mine who put in a lot of work to make my buck come alive and win the Canadian Taxidermy association first place prize with my buck mount; Josh Thibodeau at Tru-Life Mounts in Tilbury Ontario, who I would recommend to anyone who is looking to get a great quality mount done at a great price! November 9th, 2014 was easily the best day of my life so far, not only because I got the chance to harvest a buck of a lifetime, but also because I had my family and friends there to celebrate and enjoy it with me.
My grandmother (Bubba) had been battling cancer for the past 2 years or her life until she ran out of steam and on June 5th, 2015 passed away. After harvesting this buck, I told my grandmother about the experience and I could see that she was happy for me as I preached this story to her. She was a fighter and I couldn’t have been more proud of her with everything she went through and somehow still managed to keep a smile on her face. Hence the reason I named my buck of a lifetime after her: The Bubba Buck.
Yup Buck of a lifetime there. Maybe you should write for an outdoor magazine. I felt like i was there in the stand with you . Seriously though you are lucky to have had this buck on your property and you had the history with him and were able to keep it together and put a good shot on him. Great luck and Great skill. Hope one like that comes my way one day. Congrats!
