It was early April 2011 I spent some time in the emergency room with a bad kidney stone. It was there that I was informed that I had a rare horseshoe shaped kidney. Some people have claimed that I have had a horseshoe stuffed somewhere for years now, just a little lower. I went into the 2011 Wisconsin gun season with without high expectations as normally the gun season is a disappointment and my 2011 bow season had been a success and my thoughts were I had used up my luck for 2011. Not so fast . . . Opening weekend came and went. No shots fired. Twenty three deer sighted. Two small bucks passed as they put on a show for me Sunday morning fighting as only a 3 and 7 point can. My dad did shoot a nice doe Sunday evening so the season was a success already. Monday morning found me over looking the swamp again with a food plot behind me. About 8:30 I noticed 2 does up in the food plot eating they hung around for about 30 minutes then wandered off to bed. About 10:00 I bailed out and checked a couple cameras on the way back. I decided to change clothes and take a walk about to check a couple other cameras. Today I had the place to myself so I could roam a little. I gave GregH a call and set up a lunch date with me picking him up about 11:45. Then I took off. I headed down into the creek bottom where I have a camera over looking a mock scrape in a food plot as I got closer I could see 4 does feeding in the plot I found this interesting as it was 10:45. They trotted off as I was not ready to fill a doe tag quite yet. I checked the camera then headed back around to the cabin. I was walking the trail and I always keep my eyes peeled for bedded deer as this is common here. Sure enough about 35 yards to my left I notice a white throat patch and a pretty nice set of chocolate antlers watching me walk by. It is common for deer to stay put and let us walk by. I slowed my walk searching for a hole to get a bullet to him. I found a decent spot and raised my rifle. I judged him quickly as I was worried he would bolt as I stopped. I then settled the cross hairs on the top half of his white throat patch as that was all I could see where he was bedded behind a log. I pulled the triggered and he flopped over. I went over to get a good look at my buck that turned out to be a main frame 4 x 4 with a split brow and a neat fish hook point coming off the inside of his left G3 making him a 10 point he is 17 inches wide and will score about 130. I gave him a quick kick and then called my wife to tell her the good news. As I am talking to here I see his eyes roll and his head comes up I hang up and quickly shoot him in the lungs. I then called GregH again and asked for some help getting my buck out he was pretty surprised that I had got one after talking to him just a little while earlier. The photo shoot went well and Greg did an awesome job ( I failed to pull out the pose). As we got him loaded in the truck Greg noticed my first shot had given him an inverted mohawk and may have only knocked him out so the second shot may have been the killing shot. It also turned out that at some point the buck had been gut shot as his intestines were stuck between his stomach lining and his hide. I really doubt he would have made it and this may be why he laid there so patiently after seeing me and letting me get my rifle on him. So the "it's better to be lucky than good" trend continues. I am officially bucked out in WI. Bring on the ice it's time for some fishing !
Great buck Pat, congrats again. It's been fun getting both of those bucks out. Oh, and thanks for lunch..... that was entertaining as well!
