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A year later, a missed opportunity turns into a really big hit
ByTim RenkenBY TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
11/23/2002
Hunter and deer cross paths again, and this time hunter wins the game.
Second chances to kill a big buck can be rare for deer hunters.
As the man sat in his tree stand on Sunday morning in the opening weekend of the current Missouri firearms deer season, he kept thinking about the hunt last year. The memory wasn't particularly pleasant.
He had been on the same stand in the same Moniteau County creek bottom. The morning was warmer last year but still brisk. A whispy fog hung over the grass and in the trees.
The sun had just come over the hill to the east when the man's eye caught a movement in the dense cover to the west. Then he made out a deer, a buck, coming his way slowly. It appeared that it would walk past the tree to his right, but then it made a right turn and passed directly in front of the stand about 30 yards away.
He raised his rifle and peered into the scope. Instead of a deer, though, he saw nothing but solid white. The scope had fogged. He lowered the gun to wipe off the scope with his gloved finger, then found that both lenses were fogged.
As the man tried to clear them, the deer saw him and bounced off, leaving the guy fuming. He had missed a perfect chance at bagging a nice buck because he hadn't tended to his rifle. That was the only chance he had in that hunt and for the first time in a long time last year he had gone deerless.
That memory kept the guy checking his scope this time. He had to clear it two or three times, until the sun came up and burned away the frost. About 10 a.m. the guy was standing on the platform and staring west when he saw movement at least 400 yards away in the heavy cover. Checking with his binoculars, he saw the back of a deer and antlers. At that distance they looked to be a yard wide.
The deer wasn't headed exactly toward the guy, but he was pretty sure it would. It was coming down the head-high cover along the river, the same route taken by that buck last year. This time the guy checked his gun, he had plenty of time, then sat down on the stand's platform so he could use his knees as a gun rest.
He was afraid to move his head or even blink. Big bucks, he knew, are extremely wary and watchful, so he just sat there and stared at the wall of cover. He waited what seemed like a long time, probably 15 minutes, and was starting to wonder if the deer was, indeed, coming. Then, suddenly, it was there, slightly to his right, walking slowly and preparing to cross a drainage ditch to the right of the stand.
When it appeared in a narrow opening between branches of the tree, the man found it in his scope, put the crosshairs at the base of the thick neck about 20 yards away and squeezed the trigger. At the shot, the deer went limp and fell draped over the edge of the ditch bank. As the man watched to see if it was dead, he could see that the antlers weren't a yard wide, but they were huge. He counted four points to a side. It was by far the biggest head the man had bagged in 47 years of hunting.
Up close, the rack, perfectly symmetrical, looked even bigger. It had 10 points, counting two inch-long buttons at the skull. And the deer itself was huge. It was all he could do to move it enough so it wouldn't slide into the ditch.
As he sat beside it, catching his wind, the man thought about that incident at this place the year before. He was pretty sure this was the same deer. It had the same typical antlers, it was occupying the same thicket, traveling the same trails. It was even doing the same thing it was doing when he saw it last year, sneaking away from the noisy hunting activity on the farm just up the river. The only difference was that it was a year older and a whole lot bigger.
As he hiked to the farmhouse to get help, the man did a mental turnaround in his attitude about that blown chance the season before. Had he killed this buck last year, he wouldn't have had this trophy of a lifetime.
(Note: Scored uncured by a less-than-expert scorer whose bias is unquestionable, the rack totaled 162 1/8 points, 2 1/8 points above the Boone & Crocket minimum.)
Reporter Tim Renken
E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-849-4239
ByTim RenkenBY TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
11/23/2002
Hunter and deer cross paths again, and this time hunter wins the game.
Second chances to kill a big buck can be rare for deer hunters.
As the man sat in his tree stand on Sunday morning in the opening weekend of the current Missouri firearms deer season, he kept thinking about the hunt last year. The memory wasn't particularly pleasant.
He had been on the same stand in the same Moniteau County creek bottom. The morning was warmer last year but still brisk. A whispy fog hung over the grass and in the trees.
The sun had just come over the hill to the east when the man's eye caught a movement in the dense cover to the west. Then he made out a deer, a buck, coming his way slowly. It appeared that it would walk past the tree to his right, but then it made a right turn and passed directly in front of the stand about 30 yards away.
He raised his rifle and peered into the scope. Instead of a deer, though, he saw nothing but solid white. The scope had fogged. He lowered the gun to wipe off the scope with his gloved finger, then found that both lenses were fogged.
As the man tried to clear them, the deer saw him and bounced off, leaving the guy fuming. He had missed a perfect chance at bagging a nice buck because he hadn't tended to his rifle. That was the only chance he had in that hunt and for the first time in a long time last year he had gone deerless.
That memory kept the guy checking his scope this time. He had to clear it two or three times, until the sun came up and burned away the frost. About 10 a.m. the guy was standing on the platform and staring west when he saw movement at least 400 yards away in the heavy cover. Checking with his binoculars, he saw the back of a deer and antlers. At that distance they looked to be a yard wide.
The deer wasn't headed exactly toward the guy, but he was pretty sure it would. It was coming down the head-high cover along the river, the same route taken by that buck last year. This time the guy checked his gun, he had plenty of time, then sat down on the stand's platform so he could use his knees as a gun rest.
He was afraid to move his head or even blink. Big bucks, he knew, are extremely wary and watchful, so he just sat there and stared at the wall of cover. He waited what seemed like a long time, probably 15 minutes, and was starting to wonder if the deer was, indeed, coming. Then, suddenly, it was there, slightly to his right, walking slowly and preparing to cross a drainage ditch to the right of the stand.
When it appeared in a narrow opening between branches of the tree, the man found it in his scope, put the crosshairs at the base of the thick neck about 20 yards away and squeezed the trigger. At the shot, the deer went limp and fell draped over the edge of the ditch bank. As the man watched to see if it was dead, he could see that the antlers weren't a yard wide, but they were huge. He counted four points to a side. It was by far the biggest head the man had bagged in 47 years of hunting.
Up close, the rack, perfectly symmetrical, looked even bigger. It had 10 points, counting two inch-long buttons at the skull. And the deer itself was huge. It was all he could do to move it enough so it wouldn't slide into the ditch.
As he sat beside it, catching his wind, the man thought about that incident at this place the year before. He was pretty sure this was the same deer. It had the same typical antlers, it was occupying the same thicket, traveling the same trails. It was even doing the same thing it was doing when he saw it last year, sneaking away from the noisy hunting activity on the farm just up the river. The only difference was that it was a year older and a whole lot bigger.
As he hiked to the farmhouse to get help, the man did a mental turnaround in his attitude about that blown chance the season before. Had he killed this buck last year, he wouldn't have had this trophy of a lifetime.
(Note: Scored uncured by a less-than-expert scorer whose bias is unquestionable, the rack totaled 162 1/8 points, 2 1/8 points above the Boone & Crocket minimum.)
Reporter Tim Renken
E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-849-4239
