By Jerry Long, November 29, 2010 

While regaling everyone with my African Archery Safari Journal I’ve been hitting it hard in the Wisconsin whitetail woods.  This week I share the harvest of my first whitetail since 2008.  

My 2010 whitetail doe.

 October 2nd, 2010 found me in the field on a new piece of southeast Wisconsin private property that is open to public hunting by drawing permit.  This is the first time I’ve hunted southeast Wisconsin since 1994 which was before the Chronic Wasting Disease scare and the Wisconsin DNR’s scorched earth policy for the southern CWD zones.  Since this was an “earn-a-buck” unit I could only shoot an antlerless deer.   The morning hunt, aggressively crowding what I believed to be a buck’s bedroom in a marsh, went without a sighting to my surprise.

After that I set up another treestand site and did some quick in-season scouting.  The property is in various sized pieces with one section that must be accessed through a several acre waterfowl/beaver pond (no kidding).  As I was trudging through twelve inches of water in the middle of the pond a neighboring landowner whose deck overlooks it decided to interrogate me on my authority to be there.  After displaying all the appropriate permits and ensuring him I enjoyed the challenge of the trek (which he did not appreciate) the deck troll bid me adieu.   I chose to try to avoid the water using the south end on the return trek – big mistake!  At times I had to balance on woven wire fencing topped with strands of barbed wire to keep from plunging down to who-knows-what depth.

An overhead view of the waterfowl pond where the Deck Troll interrogated me.

My mid-day power scouting led to a plan for the evening hunt.  Someone had placed treestands along a heavy deer trail on either side of a large valley where the trail exited into the fields.  I do not believe in hunting field edges on pressured properties.  Pressured deer will likely reach these spots long after legal shooting light.  Instead, I chose the middle of the valley at a point where a marsh from the northwest met up with hardwoods to set up my four Lone Wolf climbing sticks and Alpha Assault stand.  Utilizing Ex-Steps I was able to get higher and actually step down onto my stand instead of my normal climb up routine.

An overhead view of the stand set up.

Just barely visible here around the user’s right boot the Ex Step gives the treestand hunter extra, easily packable height without using an extra stick.

At about 5:00 pm a “crack” to the north east alerted me to a doe and young one that were too close.  I was sitting down with my bow on the hook soaking up the surrounding beauty.  The “cracking” had actually been going on for a little while, but I hadn’t been able to pin point its source.  By carefully waiting for the doe and young one to look in other directions I was able to get up and get my bow.  The doe presented a shot… and I was unable to fully draw my 70 pound Bowtech SWAT.  I’d never had that happen before.   I think my feet were twisted and I didn’t have a good base on the stand. 

She moved forward snacking as she went and I was able to get repositioned and draw.  Then it was a waiting game for the shot opportunity.  Once the bow was drawn I had no problem holding it at full draw and actually just leaned against the tree waiting.  She took a step and opened up the kill zone window.  Her offspring was looking somewhere else.  I pulled up, anchored, put the pin on the sweet spot and triggered the release.  The Slick Trick tipped Easton aluminum arrow hit home a little high, but I was confident.

She took off back to the northeast as the little one took off to the northwest.  The doe made it about twenty yards before she began that familiar short-of-breath swoon then she charged back to the south about twenty yards and was down.  Considering 2009’s whitetail dry spell I jumped up in the air with my bow raised in my right hand and vigorously pumped it up and down (silently, though, just in case).  The young one snorted off to the northwest.  I texted Mrs. dustyvarmint, “Yes!”  Normally I am a staunch believer in waiting one-half hour or longer before following the blood trail, but I didn’t think it necessary.  I was sure she was down.   I didn’t even think it necessary to follow the blood trail; I thought I knew where she was. 

Sure enough, about forty yards away she was down.  After snapping a few camera phone pics for my Kansas friend Will, I drug her to my tree, packed up the stand and clothes and headed to the truck.  At that moment I suddenly realized I’d left my game cart in my driveway at home.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I shook my fist at the clouds and thanked goodness I had a deer drag rope in the truck.  At the truck I grabbed my Canon A40 camera, my Targus Grypton 6” tripod (link), Forschner-Victorinox pare knife and a towel I keep for field dressing then headed back. 

After a number of photos and field dressing  I headed back to the truck dragging her all the way including up a very steep embankment, past one of the field edge treestands, through a bean field, up another incline and then down the long two-track to my truck.  At that point I felt physically old… (and stupid for forgetting my cart).   I celebrated on the way home with dinner at Taco Bell where the young man at the window said, “Nice deer.  What is it?”

I took this fine public land Wisconsin buck in 2005 on a one afternoon speed-scout-place-stand hunt.

Scouting a property and successfully hunting a new stand all in one day is something that gives me a lot of satisfaction.  Being an almost entirely self-taught whitetail hunter, I typically try to overcome my lack of skill with sheer effort.  In this case it paid off – I broke my whitetail dry spell and “earned a buck” tag. 

happy hunting, dv 

If you liked this blog you may like the following:  

Feedback, Questions & Comments 

I’d like to hear your tips, feedback, comments or questions.  Please leave them below.   

Subscribe  

Like this blog? Want to be notified of updates? Subscribe via RSS feed by clicking here.

Related Posts