Antlers on the Ground…..Antlers on the Ground!! - Rainy Lake - Rainy Lake

Antlers on the Ground….Antlers on the Ground!! “Dancin Like a FOOL with those antlers on the GROUND!!

Ok…..Sunday mid-day in the midst of a ridiculous draft of warm air I found myself in my climber. With the afternoon sun beating on my face my entire Blaze orange outfit seemed to have literally caught fire. My clothes felt like coarse wool on my skin. Making a living in the outdoors has brought clarity to the philosophy that you will not change the weather. Every dedicated outdoorsman must overcome Mother natures wicked ways!! It was increasingly apparent the deer movement was going to be down considerably unless a guy was fortunate enough to get to a big buck on “Lockdown”.

1:30 pm I witness a mature doe hastily moving through an old slash coming to within about 125 yards of my climber before crossing my trail and flat out BOLTING away. WOW!! Talk all you want about bucks, but mature does are as smart as they come. A doe is in a protective state from the daily danger of wolves, and keeping themselves along with their fawns safe is a top priority!! I immediately began questioning the present stage of the rut with no buck seemingly locked up. That Doe never peered behind her once, yet at the same time spent no time browsing on her brisk walk through?? A few minutes later off my back right shoulder a small spiker appeared walking about 50 yards away from me, and headed out in the bramble. Seems spike bucks are the most careless deer I’ve ever ran into.

I kept a keen eye on the precise area where that doe came from hoping she had some late arriving company with stinky tarsal glands. Sure enough about 1 hour after that Mature doe had caught my scent I watch Northwoods antlers glistening in the sunshine bolt up the cut with a purpose. When I first caught a glimpse of this “Hefty Neck” he was at a distant 450 yards, but closing faster than I could swallow my deer jerky. I had my trusted 10×50 dialed in at 8, and was having a difficult time keeping this buck in the Rainydaze “Circle of Trust”. He was flat out crazed……….NOSE TO THE GROUND. I wouldn’t have been shocked to see smoke blown from his flaring nostrils!! The slash was filled with Bramble, Small pines, and yellow grass. He was really closing fast, and I kept having to give myself pep talks to hold fire!! “Not yet…….wait….wait………WAIT DANG IT!! He simply would not stop to present ANY sort of clear shot on his vitals. As he now approached about 125 yards I new that was where the doe caught my trail in, and it was now or never. I elected to whistle loudly to attempt to stop the freak!! RIGHT………. NOT EVEN A HESITATION BY THIS Chick Magnet!! I then Whistled again, and sure enough he stopped on a dime just like in the movies!! Unfortunatley in real life this crafty doe breeder haulted directly behind the one small norway pine in this area!! THEN……..When he new there was going to be a showdown on the horizon he burned out like a comet. It was Nervous Hunter Vs. Nervous Stomper!! Nobody was comfortable with the situation I dare say!! I decided to spin my first anxious .270 hunk of burning love his way which apparently was swallowed up in the nearby bramble. In a state of “Buck Panic” I dialed my scope to 10, and searched the general area with no sign of my personal 2010 ghost!! Then I saw those tall forward antlers!! He was “Stomp Walking” while slightly quartering away from my switchback climber. I watched those antlers get lower with each stomp to the point where I could only see the head of the deer. I stood up in the climber and whispered “Hail Mary Baby” to myself. I squeezed the trigger!! When my Remington 760 that has been passed on through 3 generations of Granrud Deer Hunters dropped back into position I couldn’t see anything. I new one or two more steps would have vanishing antlers a reality of my 2010 gun season. I started breathing as hard a Pat Williams on 4th down at Nose Tackle. I new the “Moment of Truth” had passed. I attempted to calm myself as I was shaking my head at what had just happened. I had that deer in my scope for 300 YARDS!! HOW COULD I NOT POSSIBLY GET A CLEAN SHOT AT THIS DEER!! I pulled my cap off holding my head in the palm of my hand. Reliving the sequence seemingly 200 times in 30 seconds with the sound of my heart pounding felt through my entire body. Collecting myself I made sure my safety was on, and reminded myself climbing down a tall Jack pine is not going to be a new Olympic event in the next “Winter Games”. As is seemingly took me 2 days to reach the bottom of the tree I slung my body out of my climber, and lined up a small pine I remember shooting over. As I took my first step I noticed the “Shaking knee syndrome” that I’ve only experienced hunting big deer or catching monster fish. I chuckled to myself as this now 38 year old grown man has the excitement race through his blood like a 12 year old boy. That is something only outdoorsman will ever completey understand. I scurried through the slash trying not to take a tumble or snap an ankle. I’d been reminded before that our deer cart wouldn’t fit a deer, and myself on it at the same time!! I remember making a quick deal with the man in the clouds on my longest walk of the 2010 gun season.

As I got to the estimated location I had pinpointed I again looked back at the tree where only minutes before I had been slinging 150 grains of hope. Yep this should be the area he should have been………I took another 10-15 steps!! My heart was pounding, and hurt like a school boys first love lost!! THEN………..ANTLERS ON THE GROUND!!

I literally performed an original “Antlers on the Ground……Antlers on the Ground…….YOU BET I WAS LOOKING LIKE A FOOL, but those antlers were on the GROUND!!”

I had shot that buck directly in the back of the neck out the front!!

I gave a thumbs up to the man upstairs, and even Jesse Ventura’s “HOMERUN BALL” call as a football announcer would have seemed fitting at that moment.

Hunting bucks in the brutal bramble of the Minnesota Northwoods has never been touted as a small task. There are no cornfields to interept feeding deer, and few small parcels of land to push with truckloads of drivers. There is a very good reason you won’t see many……..or ANY deer hunting filming up in this neck of the woods by the Monster Buck Squad. Patterning deer is at the very least DIFFICULT, and isolating a good buck to get a clean shot without being detected can be very trying. When bucks leave the scrape lines, and lock down on a doe you simply have to find out where the does are eating. Deer eat everywhere in the northwoods, but of course prefer tender buds. In warm weather those deer really limit there movement as they don’t need the extra nutrition to keep warm. Long days in the stands with little to NO deer activity will test the mental toughness of any determined hunter. People can talk all they want about the physical demands of tromping 2 miles through the cedar swamps like is commonplace on a daily basis for me, but I believe the lack of mental toughness will hinder a hunters results more often than not. I promise you closing the deal on a Minnesota Big Woods Stomper in the heart of WOLF COUNTRY is a challenge that I always look forward to accepting!! It gets in your blood, and after the years pass you wouldn’t want it any other way. Afterall it is the challenge of the hunt that drives a man. This 12 pointer like every other hunters personal buck has a special spot in my memory bank. The 2010 season will forever be etched in my hunting soul.

Heres to hoping all IDO boys are putting 150% into the 2010 season. You’ll never get it back boys, and have the entire off season to get all that other stuff done. Hunt hard, Hunt smart and Hunt for success. Plan on that buck paying you a visit, and try tilt the odds in your favor with dominate scent/noise control. Best of luck Team!! It’s the 2010 Gun Season Baby!! There is no Glory on the Sidelines…….. LIVE IT!!

Got a call the other night from a guy that said he had permission to hunt a 200 acre totally plowed field to my west and was set up in a tent in the middle. Wouldn’t you know it he said he hit a buck that went into my land. Gave him permission to track it. I don’t think he expected me to come out and help him. Never found any blood but we pushed the area that he said it went, nothing. In talking about the shot he mentioned that it must have hit brush and he missed. I was wondering where the brush was in the plowed field and why there wasn’t a tent but a bucket in my wetlands fence line??? Anyways my neighbors were milking and saw that we pushed an 11 pointer and a doe out and it stop in there small grove next to their house but they kept milking. It was still there the next morning and their son shot it, real nice kid and I’m glad he got it instead of someone that was questionably an ethical hunter. I’m not sure what neck sizes usually are but this had a 33″ measurement.