What a wild time this past weekend was. I took off Thursday to hunt and had Friday off for Veterans Day. Thursday morning I went in to a spot where I had seen two really nice bucks the week before. They bed on a half acre island formed by a horse shoe in a creek that feeds into the a lake. With light rain forecasted for most of the day, I planned on sitting all day. That plan changed when my wife text me shortly after daylight, neighbor had to take her to work because she couldn’t find her keys. That changed an all day sit into getting down at 2:30 to get the kids from school and her from work. I got down at 1:30 when the rain escalated to thunderstorms and hail. With all my gear soaked, I went home. I skipped the morning hunt on Friday to take my wife out for breakfast since we were both off work and attend the Veterans Day ceremony at my kids’ school. My youngest and his class led the Pledge of Allegiance. I was back in a tree by 1:30 in a different spot from Thursday. This time, I was on a white oak grove along the edge of a thick creek bottom. A buddy and I had found this spot scouting the week before and he had missed a doe when he hunted it that night. Nothing moved until this buck stepped out with 15 minutes of light left. He was walking straight towards me and then turned to take a trail along the edge of the creek bottom. He stopped at a spot I ranged at 30 yards earlier. I put a perfect heart shot on him and he died 40 yards later back in the creek bottom. With just a couple of minutes of light left two more bucks stepped out at 50 yards and started fighting. I called my wife to have her bring out the kids and I got out of the tree to start blood trailing. The trail was easy to follow and then my son called. About 1/2 mile from where I parked they came across a 1/2 acre brush fire. I couldn’t smell the smoke because the wind was blowing it away from me. I abandoned the search for the buck and hustled back to my truck. After the local volunteer FD showed up we left and went to a nearby town and had dinner to kill time until it was safe to go back in. We returned a couple of hours later. With the fire out, I went back in alone. At this point , it was 8:30, three hours after the shot. My wife took the kids home because they were exhausted and our youngest was nervous about the fire starting back up. I found the buck 10 yards from where I abandoned the track. After a 3/4 mile drag out on the cart, I got back to the truck. I got home around 10pm, got it hung in the garage and went to bed at almost midnight. If not for the fire, I would have been home around 7:30. The adventure wasn’t over yet though. Saturday morning as I was start to debone the deer, my knife slipped, almost slicing off the tip of my pinky finger. I had to call my wife to come home from her shopping to take me to urgent care. After three hours in UC, I had five stitches, and updated tetanus shot and a an amoxicillin prescription to prevent an infection. But, I ended my four year buckless drought.
Thanks for writing up the story! Great job all around, except the finger part! Haha. Always feels good to put a buck down, not a easy thing to do on public. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Great read, wish the kids could've helped with finishing track and recovery. So every time you look at your scarred pinky you will remember the drought breaker buck, and only imagine how this story will sound in 30yrs, " as I was strangling this monster buck with my bare hands he bit my finger off then I had to fight a forest fire to get back to my truck!!" Great name "Fire Finger Buck" !! Congratulations
Thanks Jeff, the only drawback was the kids not finishing the track with me. Fortunately, I tried to have them come out or I would not have known about the fire. That could have gotten very dangerous.
It's the stories that make a deer live on. Only through telling our memories do they stay fresh. I write mine down in a journal. Great stories are eternal. Congrats on the damn thing man. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Were you out of super glue? Yeah it burns a bit but saves that $350 ER copay, granted this is advice from a DA that glued my leg shut and stitched my pants up.
I got the skull cap cleaned and boiled over Thanksgiving day. I don’t have the greatest wood-working skills, but, I think I am going to make a wooden plaque in the shape of a finger on fire with stitches on the tip. If i can pull it off, it will make a great conversation starter when people see it.
Starter working on the plaque for the antler mount. Still need to stain it and attach the skull cap. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
