This is my best friend Rodney and his son Marcus, I wasn’t in the woods with them but I was there to help find the deer and what a great year it has been.
This deer hunting story starts as so many others do with the planting of food plots, selecting stand locations and putting up trail cameras. Hours and hours of work heading to that magical season called fall and opening day of deer season. But little did my best friend Rodney Ries and his son Marcus know, this was going to be a very special season indeed.
Anticipation began to grow in late summer as the weekly ritual of collecting the sd cards from the many trail cameras began to reveal several nice bucks on the property where the duo would be hunting. With the cameras showing most activity happening well before or after legal shooting hours stand locations were selected in areas with good deer movement all the while hoping one of the bigger bucks would show himself in the daylight offering a shot. Finally the shotguns were sited in for pinpoint accuracy and they were ready for opening morning.
The first few days of the season came and went with warm dry weather and very high winds keeping the deer movement to a minimum. With rutting activity at peak levels and near record high temps in the forecast Rodney decided that Thursday evenings sit would be in a stand over looking a water hole with hopes a hot and thirsty buck would come in for a drink. Unfortunately none came but before they went home he made one more round collecting the sd cards. After arriving home and viewing the photos he realized that one of the biggest of the bucks on camera all summer had walked past one of the other stands in the morning and in the evening, both times during legal shooting hours. Unfortunatly they had chosen to sit in the wrong stand. With that Rodney vowed that someone would be sitting in that stand everyday for the rest of the season.
Friday morning brought more high winds; they only saw one small fawn. With the evening weather forecast calling for cooling temps and lighter winds they were in the stand early hoping for increased deer movement. Finally as the wind began to subside and just like clock work the team noticed a small four pointer and small doe entered the field. Then soon came an adult doe moving from the edge of the woods out into the picked corn field, but something was not quite right with her as she kept looking behind her and she seemed a bit skittish. Rodney’s many years of deer hunting experience told him that chances were good that the mature doe had a rutting buck trailing close behind her.
The team was on the edge of their seats when finally out came a huge buck . Rodney instantly knew this was the eleven pointer one of the biggest bucks they had been watching all summer. The rutting buck confidently entered the field scent checking the doe and all the while moving within range. At seventy five yards the beast turned and offering a broadside shot, Marcus fixed the crosshairs just behind the right front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. With a loud crack of the gun the buck lurched forward giving signs of a mortal hit. Both father and son sat amazed at what had just unfolded, and then they realized all the hard work had just paid off with a great shot on a huge buck.
As I arrived to the property to help my friends collect the buck of a lifetime. I looked at my best friend and I knew he was a very proud father. Satisfied with a year of hard work, Proud of his eleven year old son making the shot of a lifetime on a huge eleven point buck on 11/11/11
That right there folks is Father and Son time at its finest