The story didn't end with an arrow through his lungs, but with my trusty Marlin 30-30, the gun that kicked off my obsession with whitetails over 25 years ago. The rain just let up on an afternoon in mid-July. I walked out my garage door to get something out of my truck. As I always do when walking out my house, I take a quick look around, scouting the fields surrounding my house. I notice a couple deer in the bean field maybe 300 yards from my driveway. One of them picked his head up and I noticed it was a buck with a really nice frame. I ran inside to get my video camera.... As far as I know, it was the first time I've ever seen this buck. I started calling him the foggy buck which was eventually shortened to what became his name....Foggy. I put out some mineral in the corner of that same bean field hoping to get a closer look at Foggy. I saw Foggy a couple times in August while driving to and from my house, and one other time in the alfalfa field next to my parent's house on the other side of the farm while having a family dinner one evening. After the family dinner sighting, Foggy disappeared. My parent's farm borders I-55. Every single year a good buck or two gets hit on the interstate and I just knew Foggy fell victim to a vehicle. In early October, I put a mock scrape on a ridge leading to the alfalfa field next to my parent's house. On October 15th, Foggy made his first appearance in over 6 weeks. Nine days later, on October 24th, I finally had the right wind to hunt the mock scrape. I killed that evening, but it wasn't Foggy, or a deer for that matter. Foggy did make an appearance that evening, however, it was after dark and he busted me up in the tree as I'm packing my camera equipment. I was worried that he was either going to leave the area or I just forced him back into a nocturnal pattern after he was just starting to move during late evening rather that completely at night. Fortunately, he didn't leave the area. I spotted him driving the back way through the farm to my parent's house. I hunted Foggy hard for the next week. I have a kill plot called the "Interstate Plot" which borders our east property line with I-55. I had a good wind to hunt that plot virtually all week, and I mostly did. I hunted the Interstate Plot on October 30th, sitting all day and not seeing any of the bucks that were on my hit list. I had to work on October 31st. On November 1st, I went up to the Interstate Plot to hang another stand for my son to hunt the next day for youth season. I checked the trail camera while I was up there. Foggy came into the Interstate Plot, during the daylight, walking 15 yards from my stand, on October 31st. It felt like I just got punched in the gut. At that moment, I figured it just wasn't meant to be, I'm not going to take this buck and Foggy would meet the same fate as many of the other bucks living near I-55....vehicular deerslaughter. I bow hunted Foggy on and off for the next two weeks splitting my time between MO and IL. No success in my quest for Foggy during the first bow season. The MO firearms season opened Saturday, November 16th. Before daylight, I climbed into one of my bowhunting sets down in strip of woods along the cattle pasture. I saw two deer between daylight and 8am, a doe fawn and a spike with one side broke off. My in-laws were in town visiting, so I decided I would get down at 10am and put some pork steaks on the smoker for dinner. 10:00 rolled around and I packed up my camera and climbed down. It was about 10:15 now. I took maybe 15 steps from the base of my tree and saw a doe running up the ridge. I ducked down...the hunter's natural instinct. I thought I jumped that doe fawn that may have bedded in the thicket 50 yards from my tree. Suddenly, I caught movement to my right! It was a 1.5 year old buck chasing the doe. Behind him I saw another buck, a nice young 8 point. Behind him.....Foggy! The doe was running circles in front of me with the smaller bucks hot on her tail. Foggy was trying to run the other bucks off the doe. He stopped 50 yards, broadside right in front of me surveying the situation while catching his breath. I've got him in the crosshairs of scope.....NO!.....I'm not shooting him unless I can get it on camera. He starts after the small bucks harassing the doe once again. They're running through the thicket and I'm frantically trying to get my camera setup. I quickly ratchet my Muddy arm to a small tree I'm squatting beside and get the camera locked on. It looked as though the deer ran over the ridge. I'm absolutely disgusted! If I would have just sat for another 15 or 20 minutes, I'd have my hands on Foggy. I'm not sure what I should do now. Should I stay put and hope they make their way by me again? Or, should I loop around the back side of this ridge and head up to the Interstate Plot in case they circle around that way? I opted to stay put. I stood up to get a slightly better vantage point. I see him...Foggy! I can barely see antlers at this point. The doe bedded down in the thicket. Foggy was guarding her. As one of the other bucks would get too close, Foggy went after him. After he made his move on one of the bucks, he walked into a small window I had to shoot. I quickly positioned the camera, zoomed, focused and shouldered my Marlin 30-30. I squeezed the trigger, the gun fired and Foggy dropped in his tracks! Holy cow! I just took the buck I've been watching since the summer! Normally, I want to take every buck with my bow....I always thought it made it more special. But, for some reason, I don't feel that way at all with this buck. I think it's because I've watched this buck and had my heart set on taking him that whatever the means were, I wanted to get it done. Luckily, I did. My quest for Foggy will be an episode of "The Break" on the Hunt Channel on Dish Network, Channel 266 in July 2014.
Just OK....at best. But the episode will come together nicely, I think, with the story and the amount of Trailcam video and pics that I have of him.
