First some details. I have been hunting with my brother and father on the same stretch of private land for 17 years in Northwest Minnesota. Over those 17 years I was blessed to be able to hunt with my grandfather who also was able to witness me taking my first deer in 1990 before suffering a stroke in 1991 and passing in 1995. My brother being two years younger than myself never did get to hunt with my grandfather who was one of the best shots I ever seen. He was a guy who lived and breathed deer hunting, target practice was his key and he believed in it.
Over the years we have taken many respectable bucks but none that would even come close to the deer we witnessed on the second day of hunting last year. We are blessed with the priviledge of hunting 320 acres of private land with the ultimate blend of hardwoods, swamp and agricultural land. The current land owner is the son of the original land owner who was good freinds with my grandfather. We feel honored and priviledged every year for granting us access to his property.
Now back to the buck. On the second day of the 2005 firearms season my brother and myself were relatively unprepared to what we were about to witness. At 10:30 A.M. after a light fog had lifted I noticed a large dark object moving quickly across a freshly tilled sugarbeet field about 500 yards away moving to the east. I grabbed the field glasses and got them up fast enough to witness a huge deer moving accross the field. This deer was a huge mature doe that would have made most bucks jealous for body size, but wait there is something only about 20 yards behind her….my eyes shifted to my left to witness the largest deer I had ever seen…a buck with a glorious rack and the body to match. They were headed strait to my brother’s stand at the Southwest corner of the woods. As they approached my brother quickly the doe and buck veered ever so slightly to the North presenting a 250-300 yard running shot. To make a long story short my brother takes two shots without connecting. I get out of my stand and make the 500 yard walk to my brothers stand knowing that he is going to be shaken by the whole experience. In speaking with my brother we confirmed this is one very large buck, unfortunately he became the ghost of the 2005 season checking and freshening scrapes on a nightly basis and choosing 6″ popals as it’s preferred rubbing trees. My father was able to also see this deer later in the season but never was offering a reasonable shot.
Fast forward to the firearms season of 2006. With the first day giving us 3 deer (Two bucks and a doe) we put our last buck tag on reserve just in case. Unfortunately we had seen no sign that this big boy was still around and were faced with the real possibility that this buck had either moved on or was taken during the muzzel-loader season or poached(unfortunately a problem where we hunt).
Well a uneventful morning turned to a warm afternoon with all of us seeing little action other than a few fawns and smaller deer. When the clock struck 1:30 I hear 3 shots ring out…it’s my brother, now I wouldn’t have done anything in reaction to this but after the 3rd shot I hear my brother yell in jubilation…now all I can think of is that my brother had redeemed himself and connected with this buck which had eluded us the previous year. My excitment gets the best of me…down from my stand I climb and make the walk over to my brothers stand.
As I approach the stand I can see that my brother is not in it and that my father has already made the walk over from his stand. I turn the corner yelling to locate my brother to no avail when I turn to look into the field where my brother and dad are standing over him! A beatiful 9 point rack with terrific mass and length, it was him! No ground strinkage on this one…a buck of a lifetime, green-scoring in the mid 160’s with 3 tines going 12″ or better, main-beams both approaching or at 26″, 19″+ inside spread and as I said previously some terrific mass. Dressed out weight is estimated at 210 lbs. A deer we will never forget.
By the way, I am seeing a trend in big deer…the trend is that there is no trend. Big and old deer don’t abide by ‘normal’ deer rules and that is what gives them their longevity. This one was caught at 1:30 in the afternoon running down-wind and fell at 275 yards to my brother’s 300 WM. Even though my brother never got to hunt with my grandfather I have a feeling he would have been proud and is still grinning from ear to ear.
Good luck to all for the remainder of the 2006 season… 
Thanks!
