Jared’s First Buck For The Wall

The author of this report is Jared Christensen he also harvested this monster whitetail we named Elvis

My early days of hunting began as a teen in southwest Minnesota near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. I learned a lot about hunting deer from my dad as he got me started in both bow hunting and slug hunting. From tips about location, wind, scent; when I had a question, he usually had a trustworthy answer. My first real lesson learned in the field happened my very first day of hunting, when my dad met up with me at 10am opening morning in my spot along a ravine. As we talked, my gun was sitting a few feet away along side of me. While visiting, a nice 10 point came wandering into the ravine. He of course was prepared; and I had no gun in hand. A good lesson learned, as he took down the deer connecting on both shots fired. As I moved off to college, a great friendship grew with a classmate. Soon, I was hunting with him in southeast Minnesota near Caledonia. With the potential of some huge deer, my love of hunting grew. But at that same time, my family grew too. After the birth of my first child, I started looking for hunting property a little closer to home now in Rochester. That quest brought me to my good friend and hunting buddy, Steve Plantz, and why I’m even able to tell you about the story that follows:

Five years ago, I had Steve’s daughter in my 5th grade classroom. At some point during my summer home-visit with the family, Steve insisted that I check out the deer mounts he had in his basement. When I told him I was looking for a place a little closer to home to hunt, an invitation came to hunt along with him just outside of Rochester. On opening day during that first year, I had 23 deer pass under my stand. All of them moving from 10am till 1pm. I was hooked! There was something special about this place. Little did we know at the time, we would each take nice bucks from the property a couple years later in 2007. As we hunted those first years together, we lived by the philosophy that we would only shoot a buck if it was bigger than any previous buck we’d ever taken. That didn’t take much for me since I didn’t have any decent bucks under my tag since I had been hunting. With a doe down on Saturday morning, I filled my buck tag Sunday morning. It was the nicest deer I had taken – a basket rack 9 point. See My 2007 MN SHOT GUN BUCK The next day, Steve decided to sit in that same stand located halfway down a small ravine to get out of the ferociously strong winds. A half hour after a large branch nearly came down on top of him, Steve took a great 10 point in the middle of the afternoon. We continued to scout and learn more about the property we hunted. Patterns of deer movement became evident. Additional stands were placed to accommodate for all sorts of wind.

Over the past two years, technology allowed us to capture pictures of the bucks frequenting the property. One buck stood out above the rest last year. Caught on a trail cam near the stand we had taken bucks the previous year, “Elvis” was born! Our shooting philosophy suddenly changed. We both clearly understood that only trophy bucks going on the wall would be taken in years to come. You have to let them go, if you want to see them grow. Unfortunately, our hunt last year yielded no deer and no sign of the giant 11 or 12 point we snapped on camera a month earlier. While it was hard letting those nice 8 pointers walk by, it was worth it, knowing there was something huge out there. And that finally brings me to the final chapter of our story. I think Steve named it best on his IDO post: “Elvis the Split Brow-tine Buck Has Left the Woods!” Once again, preseason scouting showed several nice deer in the area; and technology showed several decent deer on the trial cam pictures. One, maybe two deer that were definitely of trophy quality. Anticipation was high. Opening weekend this year, brought back that same excitement I had the first time I hunted this property. Both Saturday and Sunday, the woods and field in front of me were filled with 10 to 20 deer at sunset. At a certain point, it’s just tough to count when you’re trying to stay unnoticed. With does and a few small bucks chasing after trying to make a score, I saw no trophy in the group. Opening weekend passed, and Elvis was still nowhere to be found.

As I ventured out following work during the week, I continued to see a few deer out of that stand early in the week. But with a poor south wind mid week, the stand needed a rest. As a school teacher, I had Friday off school to work on report cards. I made the decision Thursday night, to work all day Friday, even though it would have been a nice day in the woods. That decision would give me the entire weekend to hunt. Steve gave me the complete freedom to choose where I sat all day Saturday. He knew that Saturday might be my last big day to hunt of the year, with a bit more report card work to finish up on Sunday. Saturday morning I trekked back to his 20 foot ladder stand. Earlier that week, Steve had captured a very interesting trail cam picture that really got me excited and grabbed the attention of many IDO enthusiasts. The appearance of a deer with almost a moose’s rack graced the screen. See The Moose Deer I sat high above the ground from 5:30am until about 1pm. Not a single deer. Steve knew that I would be moving at 1pm to the stand I had seen so many does out of the previous weekend. The wind was back out of the north/northwest and the perfect direction for this stand location. But, in my mind, I was hunting for venison to put in the freezer at this point. I would be happy to take my doe this afternoon and end the season on a good note.

Sunset was 4:46pm and that had been the magical time during the week. But this day, when I was looking for my doe, she wasn’t as quick to come. But at 5 to 5, I finally had a doe come out of the tall grasses to my right. I had high hopes as she continued to look over her shoulder the entire time. She stopped at a small watering hole in front for a sip. She crossed a small finger of woods in front of me and was walking the field line about 40 yards in front of my stand, still paying close attention in back of her. But I saw nothing in back. As she neared the first of my two shot openings, I noticed that she was not much more than a yearly – a small doe; but the only one that had come out. I made the decision that if she hit my 2nd shooting lane, I would take her. And just a minute or two after 5, she reached that spot. I raised my gun, adjusted the brightness on my red dot site, and took my gun off ‘safe’. Within about 2 seconds, she would go down on the field’s edge. But as my finger moved from the safety to the trigger, I heard a distant grunt. I paused. Glanced to my right, but saw nothing. I realigned for a shot at the doe. Again, within a second of pulling the trigger, a much louder grunt to my right. With my attention now peaked, I heard a loud thrashing from the neighbor’s woods. A few seconds later, the buck emerged. My first thought was, “What a pig!” Nose and chest buried in the ground, he was heading straight for the doe in front of me. I grabbed the binoculars hanging from my neck to check if this was maybe a trophy deer. I was able to just glance a few of the inside beams. They appeared to be about 8-10 inches. At that moment, I knew I had a decent deer in front of me. Just 10 seconds into his pursuit of the doe, he neared my first shooting lane. My aim of course had switched from the doe to the buck barreling down on her. Later, on the phone that night, my dad would ask, “Well, did you lead your shot?” Where do you think you hit him?” I can honestly say, “I don’t remember if I lead him.” Was I nervous? Not at all. Strangely, preparing for the shot on the doe, had taken that “fever” away. I was just shooting. It was just instinct. As I pulled the trigger on the 50 yard shot, the buck gave the great death jump that every hunter loves to see. It ran another 40-50 yards out into the field. As it stood there for 5-10 seconds, struggling a bit, I fired off another round. This one, I would find out later, took out one of his front legs. As he ran back toward the property line he had originally come from, I fired off two more shots. With dirt flying up from the field, the 3rd and 4th shots had missed the target. The deer had made it back into the neighbor’s woods.

As I got down from the stand at 5 after 5, I looked for blood throughout the area of the plowed corn field I thought I had hit him. It took me almost 5 minutes to find anything. When I finally did, there was a decent trail of dime sized drops all the way toward the neighbor’s. Knowing we would have to call for permission, I headed back to the trucks to look for Steve’s advice and knowledge of the neighborhood. With one phone call, we had permission to continue on the trial. At that point, Steve tried talking me into waiting until morning to continue. It was a hard sell, and I talked him into following the trail over the neighbors driveway to the edge of the woods that the buck had entered. With no really heavy blood, we decided to let it sit for the night and pursue it in the morning. I believe that proved to be a crucial decision.

We met at 7am. Steve thought it best to try to push the woods back towards our hunting property to the south in case the buck was still mobile. When only two does came out, we picked up the blood trail buried under a thick layer of morning frost. Every few feet we picked up a speck or small little drop to keep us moving forward. At one point, we picked up the next blood 20 feet ahead of the last. It started to seem pretty grim. Later, we both admitted that our optimism wasn’t real high. As Steve pushed ahead faster, he came to the area were the buck had decided to bed down. We finally had good strong blood sign. As we bent down for a closer examination, Steve stood first and started the push forward. Fifteen feet from that spot the deer was down. 50 yards into the woods. “Jared! Jared! BBD! Big Buck Down! Big Buck Down!” After a half dozen high fives, our excitement of seeing Elvis laying there at our feet still hadn’t set in. All night I had hoped it was as big as I thought I spied through the binoculars. I had no idea this was the big deer we had seen on trail cam the past two years. But the deer at my feet confirmed it. The shot was right on center mass through the lungs. Before long, we had neighbors, friends, area hunters, and complete strangers stopping by for pictures. The words of many repeated in my ears all day long, “This is the buck of a lifetime.” It certainly is!

Neighborhood hunter, Jack Peck helped with a weigh-in and recorded measurements. Elvis weighed in at 205 lbs. It was unofficially scored with an outside spread of 23.5 inches. The inside spread was 20.5 inches. The gross rack score was 175 and 5/8 the net was 164 and 6/8. Elvis the Split Brow-time Buck Has Left the Woods! Soon to be on a wall near me. One thing is certain – this was an experience I’ll not soon forget.

Special thanks to Steve Plantz for all the help he gave from start to finish over the years as well as during this unforgettable day. I wonder what the next chapter of our hunting adventures might bring us!?