The hunt all started this spring shed hunting on our new lease in Buffalo County, WI. Even though I never found these guys’ sheds, we did have a good idea what was in the area with the twelve different buck sheds I did find.
So, to fast forward to opening weekend, I had a really good buck spotted for some friends across the road from where I shot my buck which they ended up harvesting Sunday night. It turns out the buck was a lot bigger than anyone anticipated but more on that when Craig’s story comes out.
Now, to my day of the hunt: I got up Friday morning, called my brother and told him that our water hole was dry, and I had a good buck spotted for him to shoot. With that said he came down and we started hauling water to the water hole and hanging a stand for the buck I spotted the night before. When we finished, we headed back to the house for some target practice and my other brother called us up at about 3:30 and said he’s got a monster spotted. So, we threw our bows in the truck and raced over there so he could make us a bow drive, but the buck gave us the slip.
Off to the stands we go. Jared and Josh go to the new double hung stand that we put up that morning–Jared armed with a bow, Josh with the camera. I go to the water hole, and I no more than get comfortable and a doe with a fawn come in. Twenty minutes later in comes a buck; shooter waiting for the shot. Ok, he is in the shooting lane, though tight. I draw, anchor, release, and Thwack! I got him but not sure on the shot placement. I waited for dark to start tracking. Within twenty yards I found my snapped, wooden arrow. It looked like good penetration, so we kept on him. After about 300 yards, we found where he bedded three times and went about twenty yards to a set-aside field, so we decided to back out and wait for morning.
With little sleep, morning finally comes and I get my girlfriend’s dad Marty, my brother Josh, my cousin Chad, and we start tracking. Marty went to a tower stand so if we bumped him he would have a bird’s eye view to see where he went. We started tracking across the set-aside towards the corn field with no blood. When we got to the corn, we split up–my brother to the right and cousin to the left, in two rows. My brother yells, “I found him but the coyotes did a number on him.” So, we took the buck out of the corn for some pictures trying to cover up what the coyotes have done. The pictures turned out great and my taxidermist, Kirk Peterson, was able to use the cape. As for the rest of the deer, not eatable.
Even though it was a short season for me, I’m very proud of the first buck I have ever shot with my recurve and probably the first to net into the Pope and Young books.
What a great looking buck! 
For those of you who do not know Jeremy, he’s a big time deer junkie and spends days upon days, looking for sheds and scouting for bucks. To take a P&Y buck with a recurve bow and an arrow that you made yourself is certainly something to be proud of. 
I will be killing them this winter!
