"Field Notes" from a great hunt of mine...

While I enjoy listening to successful hunting stories, I thought I might share one of my own. Like the legendary hunter Fred Bear routinely did on his great hunting adventures, I too like to prepare "Field Notes" for those special adventures in the woods. That way I can re-live once again those great memories and details as if it just happened yesterday. I dug out my original "Field Notes" for this hunt, so here's the story behind a buck that fell to a .45 Caliber CVA Hunterbolt:

I found this rub about 200 yards from where I bagged him. The sapling is 5 inches in diameter.

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The “ 9:00 a.m. Buck ”

" The new landscape I’d been hunting held compass terrain, gnarly swamps and enough scrub-pine to keep my strategy in a state of flux. At around 9:00 a.m. on a 26 degree November morning my archery season peaked as I watched a nice buck with peculiar brow tines chasing a doe to within 25 yards of my sight pin. I marked the coordinates and spent the remainder of the archery season searching the surrounding area for clues of his travels but without any luck. Although it was now opening day of the 2007 Massachusetts shotgun season it was simply a continuation of deer season after finishing-up four weeks of archery. Now toting my .45 caliber muzzleloader and an antlerless venison tag my plan was to return to the spot I had observed the courtship a few weeks ago.

My ground stand overlooked a dog-hair thicket nestled on a narrow saddle about 60 yards away leading into a large swamp hummock. The temperature was a too-warm 39 degrees with a light rain, fog, and a very subtle south-west breeze. My GARMIN reminded me I had a 0.76 mile backwoods trek to my stand which I finally arrived at late around 6:45 a.m. The rain was now reduced to a drizzle but enough to keep me pre-occupied covering the scope lens, and the residual rain drops from the trees limited me to sight for senses. After working a mature doe bleat for 20 minutes I peaked over my shoulder only to discover that a spike-horn had materialized out of the fog to within 12 yards of me… offering no more than a frozen stare-down. Surprisingly he left without an alarm call, so I decided to stay-put for the remainder of the morning. The time was now around 8:00 a.m.

The drizzle had finally stopped but the fog remained with little if any usable visibility beyond 55 yards. After eye-straining the fog for another hour I caught a glimpse of antlers twitching in the saddle thicket. I pulled the 4X scope up for a better look only to realize the buck was quickly on the move again through the thicket, and steadily heading away from me towards the swamp. With the reality of one shot I gambled and swung the scope off the buck and anchored it 20 yards ahead of him into the last possible shooting lane. With what seemed like an eternal 10 seconds the buck not only entered the shooting lane... but stopped and broad-sided his shoulder right behind my crosshairs! After the cloud of smoke had cleared I was absolutely stunned to watch a heavy branch in front of me swaying back and forth. Totally convinced it was a miss from a deflected bullet I decided to pack-it-up, investigate the path of the buck, then still-hunt him for the rest of the day.

With eyes glued to the ground and always that seed of hope I approached the spot where I last saw the buck. Evidence of a connection was everywhere. A responsive glance to the right no more than two leaps away lie a set of antlers attached to a mounded white belly which contrasted against the dark wet ground. Standing over my season finale I knew it was the same buck I saw earlier in November with the odd-looking brow tines. Apparently the 195 grain HP Powerbelt with 90 grains of Pyrodex behind it never strayed from behind the shoulder… and once again did all the tracking for me.

The double brow tiner was clearly my best to date at 151 1/8 gross with a girth estimated live weight of 228. Thinking back I realized that were it not for the lone visual of this buck during the rutting season I would not have returned to this particular ground stand that morning. I was amazed by the notion this resident buck left no obvious calling cards (at least none that I found) of his existence. He appeared to have a surprising small home range by choice, and was twice observed very timely at 9:00 a.m. at the same location. "

In 2007 I was hunting a National Wildlife Refuge which is permitted by lottery only. I had to drag him 0.6 miles back to my vehicle. A passer-by hunter who was also tottin' a beautiful doe said I'd give you a hand, but my hands are full now. I'll come back and give you hand with that big boy because I know you will still be draggin'. After dragging for another hour or so the hunter apparently told a Refuge Warden that I was about to have a heart attack draggin a deer out. To my surprise down the loggin' road here comes the Warden!!! We threw it on his 4 X 4 and took it back to my Jeep. If it weren't for him I would not be here today telling this story.

He barely fit on my tray

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Here's a pic taken during the NBBC official scoring process. This buck was featured in the 2008 Fall issue of the Northeast Big Bucks Club Magazine as one of the top ten bucks taken with a muzzleloader in the Northeast during the 2007 hunting season. He was scored in the non-typical category. The base circumference was over 5 inches.

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He is now on my wall


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It took my 40 years of hunting to bag one like this...It was for me a truly great season hunting for this buck.