I am so emotionally and physically wiped its not even funny. I'll try to keep this as short as I can, but if you'd rather just skip to the photos, by all means! Last year, my wife & I moved up to Ely to manage a resort. Fall is the slow time, so I got to spend a ton of time in the woods, a ton. It was my second year of bowhunting. My dad & step mom have lived up here since '91, so I've been rifle hunting up here for awhile now, but usually only for a few days tops. I was fortunate enough to get my first deer with a bow opening weekend last year. A nice doe, and I was hooked! Mid November of that year, I had and encounter with a beautiful buck with dark colored horns. I was hunting an area that I had never hunted before in one of my dad's ladder stands. There was a fresh 6" of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. Right at sunset he appeared out of nowhere at 20 yds straight on ahead of me. He slowly made his way to 12 yds as I grabbed my bow. As I twisted in the stand, so I could shoot straight out, I heard a rip. The snow had melted on my knee and re-froze to the ladder stand. Needless to say, that's all the buck needed to bolt outta there. Two weeks later, my good friend and hunting buddy Nick (augustice) was up for a few days to help me try and track down this buck. We were hunting the same area and the buck made his second appearance. He walked in to Nick's stand straight on to 11 yds and busted his silhouette in the tree. After a brief stare-down, he disappeared in a flash once again. After this encounter, we lovingly dubbed the buck "Count Chocula". The Count made another at dark appearance to me later in the season that year, but he was out of range and it never happened. Flash forward to this year. We spent a ton of time trying to track down this buck's summer range, with no luck. Then, on the morning of Oct 28th he made his presence known. Scraping activity had increased seemingly overnight, so I hung my camera on a scrape 30yds behind the lodge by our garden. It was him alright.... (date was wrong on the camera) That night, my dad is in his ladder stand (the same from last year) and he has him come in to 20yds, pause and for no particular reason, bound back in to the pines, and walk off into the night. My deer season this year, started rough. I've seen more deer than last year, but I just couldn't close the deal. Oct. 17th, I shot a nice big doe, but it was real high and a little back. 450yds later, her blood trail dried up and a grid search of the surrounding area turned up nothing. Then, this Sunday, I was took a shot at a doe. 22 yds, but the arrow deflected off a branch and hit her in the ham. Luckily, the deer stopped after a couple bounds in my only, foot wide, shooting lane on the side it ran to. Arrow two smoked it! 45-50 yds later I found my "doe" had grown a pair of 1 1/2" spikes. I was pumped to have meat, but still bummed to have taken the little guy out of the heard. Yesterday, on my way back home from registering my deer in town, I bust Chocula crossing the driveway. He runs in the woods headed, up to the ridge that I've been hunting him from. This deer has just plain made me look silly... and he's not done yet. This afternoon, my wife and I are sitting in the front of the lodge trying to decide where to hunt tonight. All of a sudden Sara says, "Doe!" I look out and see a doe blast by towards the beach doing the Hot Trot. I said, "Wait one second, somethings got to be chasing her..." 60 seconds later a 90-100" buck busts out of the woods after her. He proceeds to trip over our 8" high rock wall and wipes out, spread eagle halfway down the hill. As soon as he gets up to resume the chase, a second buck busts out of the woods after the doe... Chocula! All 3 deer run towards a small point of land that reaches into our lake. In a flash, I run to the back of the lodge and grab my bow. When I come back, Sara tells me that the doe already ran out of the point back into the woods along the shoreline. I snuck out the side door towards that area. When I got out to that side I gave a couple grunts with my call. I hear grunts and a deer trotting my direction from the point. Chocula comes bounding up the path from the point and turns to head into the area that the doe ran off to. I bleated with my mouth and he stopped at the edge of the thickest part of that patch of woods. 35yds and the arrow flies. Thwack! And he kicks and bolts into the woods. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I waited 10 min, then snuck up to see if there was sign where he was last standing. Hair and blood, good blood. So I went inside and waited another hour. 40 yards in to the woods we found him piled up! I AM PUMPED! My first bow buck (* of course 2nd if you count the button I got Sun), my biggest buck ever, the first buck I've had a multi-year history with, and the first deer I've had on camera and then harvested. He will also be my first to get a shoulder mount! There goes the $$ I was going to use to get a new trail camera and LW stand (sorry Justin & Todd!). Here he is where he fell, 15yds from the lake. And a couple poses out of the woods. He was quartered away, hit 4" further back that I wanted too, but caught his liver and both lungs. Boy was he rutted up! Stinks something fierce. 242# (191# dressed). I'll get a tape on him tomorrow, but now I need to find a taxidermist and fast!:D What a roller-coaster! I love this stuff! This was the first txt I sent out. Needelss to say, my dad and Nick were the first to respond....
A night of rest and then its time to get my wife, brother, dad or Nick on this guy... Only time we've ever see him, but to know that he's out there.... oh yeah!
is that a typical 14?!?!? Good lord.....can i come hunting :D Great looking buck man!!! Love that rack, what a pig of a deer too!! Congrats!!
Wow what a great looking buck! Nice story too..sometimes things just work out! Glad to see you got him! Congrats!
That is a heck of a story and a very nice buck as well. Congratulations and good luck with the other deer for your wife. I never noticed you were from ely. Been there a couple of times. What a cool place.
Beautiful Buck Man!!! Is that second pic deer, a 14, or 15? It looks kinda like His left antler splits at the end, it may be me though...
