Heartland Outdoors

Timber Tales: First buck a big buck

Thu, December 29, 2011

By JAKE GREEN

Well I’ll start off the story by saying I’m very proud, and very jealous.

Two seasons ago my wife Ashleigh started going deer hunting with me to run video. After that season she decided that she wanted to start hunting too. So we bought her a bow, arrows, clothes, boots and anything else I could think of. Never miss an opportunity to buy hunting stuff.

Last season she passed on several does and a few little bucks as she was set on her first deer being a nice buck. The season passed with out her getting one.

This year started in August with me getting several trail cam pics of real nice bucks in velvet, and continuing to get pics once the season started. We hunt in Sangamon County.

Saturday morning, Oct. 29 came and Ashleigh’s second hunt of the year began in a new stand we put up for this season. The first hour passed without seeing a deer, then Ash spotted a doe being followed by a little spike.

She must have spotted me getting the binos out and we had a Mexican standoff until the little buck moved in, then off they went.

A short while later she spotted another deer out in the brush. It took a couple steps and I could see it was a shooter and was headed our way. There was a limb blocking us from view so she stood up and got ready while I got the video started.

He make his way toward us cutting into the woods on a path that comes 15 yards from the stand. She drew, grunted at him and shot.

My heart dropped when I watched the arrow fly right under his chest. He bounced off about 10 yards and started looking to see what that noise was. What felt like 10 minutes passed (actually was less than 15 seconds), he headed back in the direction he came from.

The video got shut off as I grabbed another arrow and passed it to Ash. She had collected herself at this point, nocked the arrow and waited. Amazingly once he made it out of the woods he turned and came back our direction.

Video back on. She drew as he was blocked from view, a few steps and there he was, a few more and he stopped broadside at 18 yards. The arrow took flight and hit its mark. He crashed through the brush and I lost site of him after 50 yards.

So we waited 30 minutes, then backed out to give him time to expire. Headed back to the bottoms and found him in the spot I had last seen him. She was literally jumping with joy and excitement, and I was shocked to see that it wasn’t the deer I thought it was.

Turned out it was his older brother.

Green scored him at 158 1/4 inches. 12 scorable points. Live weight was over 275 pounds. Not too bad for a first deer huh?

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