The 2011 Wisconsin Gun Deer season started off with rain, sleet and then driving north winds accompanied by snow. Myself and IDO Pro Staff Brad Juaire had set up a game plan to try to harvest a mature buck. The first weekend ended up in seeing a few deer, but most of the bucks were either spikes or 2.5 year olds. The next time I was able to get back to Wisconsin was Thanksgiving evening. The alarm was set for 4:30 a.m. Hopefully, Friday was going to be a good day for me. I arrived to my stand at 5:40 a.m. I could hear deer walk past my stand early that morning. Eventhough, I couldn’t see anything, I knew I was in the right spot. Sunrise awoke the woods, squirrels began to shift out of their nests and ducks began to dive bomb the creek bottoms. About 7:45 a.m. I noticed movement to the south, it was a buck. I put the bino’s up, it was the Big Seven. The Big Seven was an elusive 5 year old buck. We had several trail camera pictures of this buck but he never showed himself during daylight hours. Today was the day I had the opportunity to harvest such an animal. He made his way within 25 yards. I ended up harvesting the Big Seven. A mature buck that I was thankfull to harvest. *** Picture 2 is the Sheds from the Big Seven when he was 4 years old. A BIG THANKS to Kirk Peterson of Peterson Taxidermy for giving me the SHEDS off the Big Seven. The SHEDS were found on the same property.
November 29, 2011 at 1:21 am
#202948
What Craig left out of the story is that we actually saw that buck the night before the opener scouting and as he headed into the same area where Craig had hung a stand across the river. Craig earned him by crossing the river in the dark in waders, hauling his boots in tote knowing he would have to drag that buck across the river if he got him. 
