Public Land Legend falls on Halloween: Northern WI

I had the hunt of a lifetime this past Halloween evening in the Nicolet National Forest, Oconto County WI. My parents and I have hunted this particular section of public land for the past 9-10 years and have been lucky enough to take some very good bucks off of it. It usually starts with a trail cam photo of a good buck and maybe we get lucky enough to find his sheds in the spring or at least uncover some big rubs that may have been made by the buck and help us try to zero in on him. This story has all of the above.

"Curly" was a buck we first took notice of in the summer of 2011. We have a place on the edge of a cedar swamp that we like to hang our cameras for summer time velvet pics. That summer we a bunch of pics of two bucks who seemed to be inseparable. Whenever one of them showed up, the other was only minutes behind. Both appeared to be 2 1/2 yr old bucks with decent sized antlers for the area. The buck we named "Curly" was a wide racked buck and his G2's curl out to the back before them went up hence his name. The other buck we named "Ice Pick" due to his straight pointy brow tines. We only gun hunted that area in 2011 and saw neither of those bucks.


For the next three years, we continued to run a camera on the edge of the cedar swamp and every year Curly and Ice Pick would show up, like best buds they seemed to go everywhere together. Both had grown substantially and by 2013 carried some pretty impressive headgear for the area. By now, both bucks where at the top of our hitlist and we talked continually about the best way to hunt them and where to set stands. While scouting in the spring of 2014 we were lucky enough to find both of his sheds from the previous season. It was even more special because of when and who found his sheds. I proposed to my now fiance on April 10 and the very next day, she found his left side antler as my parents, her and I were walking. It was really cool because we were all thrilled to find evidence that Curly lived through the terrible Wisconsin winter. About 20 yards from her antler, my dad found the right side. We were ecstatic. The next weekend I went up scouting and shed hunting in the same area and my mother found one of Ice Pick's sheds that was already laying for a year and she found another matched set from a different buck.



With both of Curly's sheds and a cool engagement story, we all decided that we needed to focus all of our efforts on trying to get Curly, even thought we had never laid an eye on him. This past summer we again got photos of the two best friends and they both looked HUGE! Big bodies and tall racks. It was on!! We scouted spots and anticipated the bow season opening. Well I didn't get a chance to hunt there at all in September and only one weekend in October. I had not seen any good action at all. My dad had been up hunting in the same area and he had an encounter with a really good buck but he never got a clear look at it. We both had moved a few of our cameras into that area trying figure out where both of these big guys moved. We were starting to get them on a few of our cameras but Curly was always moving at night, but we did get a daylight photo of Ice Pick right by one of our stands so we were staying optimistic.

Last Friday, my father and I grabbed our stands and headed to an area just south of where we had been focusing our efforts. My dad had checked the area out the previous week and found some good buck sign and an area that appeared to be torn up from two bucks fighting. We walked in and saw three fresh big rubs heading off the oak ridge into some thick pines near a small creek. I chose to set up right on the edge of the thick pines where the rub line lead out and crossed a perpendicular trail with a few scrapes on it. Fully expecting any buck to follow the rub line out of the pines to my north, I was quite concerned when I heard a deer coming out of the pines downwind of my setup to the south. I could see a large bodied deer pawing fresh earth and tossing leaves everywhere followed by antlers raking a licking branch. I tried peering through the dense pines to get a better look at the deer that was about 65 yards away but only caught a glimpse of main beam and it looked big. As he started walking out into the oaks, about to possibly catch my wind, I turned my head away from him and gave to very soft grunts. It was just thick enough that he could not see where the noise came from so he turned straight north and walked right at my tree. It was then that I saw a bit more of his antlers and it crossed my mind that this might actually be CURLY!! I quickly banished that thought from my mind and went into game mode. As he turned and quartered toward me I drew my bow and found a small opening between two trees. As soon as he stepped into the opening I released and watched my lighted nock strike him just behind the shoulder blade. My arrow stayed in him as he peeled away back to his thick pine sanctuary. I tried to gather myself and listen for a crash as best I could but didn't hear much with the wind.

After talking with my dad about the shot, we both agreed it was best to leave him until the morning. I still wasn't positive which buck it was that I just shot but I did mention that it could have possibly been Curly. After a very sleepless night, due to both the fact that I didn't hear him crash and the large amount of coyotes in the area, my mom, dad, and fiance joined me in our search. We found the broken arrow right arrow and it looked like I had about 14 inches of penetration. Shortly after we found blood, and although it wasn't much we were able to follow it for just over 100 yards before my mom found the deer laying dead. As soon as she called me over and I saw a big beam with five points on it I knew it was Curly...then we all lost sanity. It was a wild mix of emotions, happy and humble, some tears and lots of hive fives and hugs. It was only fitting that a deer my entire family had come to know, be there for the last chapter of legacy. No matter how big any other deer I shoot is, this buck will always be my favorite. Four years of great memories and hundreds of hours of talking, strategizing, and day dreaming about him and I finally get to call him mine. He dressed out at 225 lbs, 10 point grossed 142"

 

That is an awesome public land deer. Congrats.

 

Great buck and great story! It's so awesome when everything comes together like that. Congratulations!

 

Awesome on all accounts. Congrats!

 

Awesome buck. Congrats!

Blessings.........Pastorjim

 

Awesome congrats!

 

Congrats!

 

Congrats on a fine buck!

 

congrats !
awesome story and memories forever !

 

Congrats. Nice buck and thanks for sharing the story.

 

Fantastic buck!

 

Awesome story & fantastic buck!

 

Excellent write up and story! Congratulations big time!!

 

Double earned that buck a big guy on public land. Much respect

 

Congrats, nice deer

 

Great story great buck and they'll be great memoirs. congrats.
Rocky

 

Nicolet National Forest, Oconto County WI....got it, thanks for the tip.
Nice deer and great story.

 

Great story...and deer

 

Congrats on an awesome buck.

 

Enjoyed the story and a really nice buck. Special that you had your family to share.