Ohhh, The Sweet Reward!!!

Normally Amy takes care of updating our blog with what we have been up to, but given the picture above, I thought I would write a little bit of how this came to be.

As Amy stated in the previous post, I gun hunted in MN the opening weekend and hit a nice buck, but didn't put a killing shot on it and ended the weekend somewhat devestated. I then left Tuesday for another archery hunting trip out of state. I had planned on staying there for quite a few days to hunt the peak of the rut.

Well, the morning of November 8th I had a hunt that will forever be etched in my memory. As it was getting light, I saw the buck pictured above with my binoculars about 3/8 of a mile away with some other deer. I could tell right away that this was an awesome buck, the kind that makes your heart pound, even that far away. After about 10 minutes, the buck had split from the other deer and had made his way along a cattail slough to within about 250 yards of my stand.

It was an extremely still morning and so I figured at this distance I could finally reach him with my grunt tube. Watching through the binoculars and giving him a few loud grunts, I could tell he heard the grunts and he started making his way to me. It took a few minutes and some more coaxing with the grunt tube, but he closed the distance and finally got within shooting range for a bow.

I pulled back when he passed behind some brush at 35 yards. He proceeded around the brush and starting heading down a trail that comes right by my stand. Stopping at 27 yards and facing me head-on, he looked up in the tree at me for a few moments. He then turned broadside and started following a trail where a doe had crossed earlier in the morning at 25 yards. I grunted again to stop him, centered my 25 yard pin on him and let the arrow go.

It didn't hit exactly where it should have, but it severed a main artery at the top of his heart and he made it only 50 yards before piling up in the cattails. A flood of emotions came over me as I began to realize what had just happened. I got down to check him out and then proceeded to call me wife and all my brothers and dad to relay the good news.

He is a basic 5 x 5 (10 pointer) with a 1.5" droptine and a gross score of about 170 inches. I thank the Lord for this gift from above and helping me to remain calm enough to make the shot. I thank my wife Amy for putting up with all of my hunting trips and letting me go so often.

You can view more pictures below. (click to enlarge)

- Mike