I love waking up on a beautiful late October morning to head out into the woods with my best friend and hunting buddy behind the camera. Opie and I had a feeling that today was the day and we knew that something was going to die. We grabbed our lone wolf tree stands and headed out into the dark woods in search of a trophy buck or a mature doe if the opportunity presented itself.

The woods were pretty quiet other than several squirrels racing around underneath of us until we noticed a 8 point buck working his way in our direction on the same path we had used. He walked right in and underneath of our stands with not a care in the world and didn’t even seem to notice we were there. Opie was on him with the camera and I started to draw the Mathews back for a shot when he spooked and bounded off about 30 yards. He stopped and looked back in our direction not really sure what he heard but didn’t seem to care much. I got my bow pulled back, waited for my opportunity and put a really good shot on him with a T3. He ran off about 100 yards after the shot and stopped out of sight and we never heard another sound from him.

We continued to sit quietly as we were just absolutely covered up with deer the rest of the morning. I took the opportunity later in the morning to harvest a nice mature doe on video at about 15 yards after she presented me with several nice shots. I sent a T3 right through her pump station with the Mathews Z7 and she didn’t make it far, piling into a bunch of brush. We climbed down, packed up our stands and begin tracking both deer. Finding the doe was no problem at all as she only went about 80 yards with a giant red blood trail. We located the arrow from the buck second and noticed that it hadn’t passed completely through the deer based on the blood left on the shaft. The blood trail was pretty easy to follow for about 100 yards but that’s when it changed drastically to an occasional drip or larger spots in the areas he had stopped. I didn’t want to track any farther until we gave him more time based on what we were seeing as I wanted him to lay down and not get back up. We decided to get the doe gutted out and head into town for some breakfast while we allowed him more time to lie there and die, hopefully without pushing him back up onto his feet.

After about 4 hours and reviewing the shot on the camera several times, we headed back out and got on the blood trail once again to hopefully find this buck dead not far from where we had left off. That wasn’t the case as we spent the next 2 hours tracking him about 100 yards due to the lack of blood on the ground. We eventually ended up jumping him out of a corn field that he had circled around into, we were able to get a good look at him standing broadside at about 100 yards. He stood there and looked at us for a minute and then bounded across a field and into the woods on the other side of the road. We tracked him another 200 yards on the other side of the field before realizing that it wasn’t a fatal shot and this deer is obviously going to live to fight another day. After reviewing the shot over and over again on the computer, we think I may have hit him a little bit forward for the slightly quartering away angle he was standing at.

I am certainly bummed that we were not able to get our hands on that buck but I am also glad we confirmed it wasn’t a fatal shot and he will live. I am a blessed man to be able to enjoy this sport and spend a gorgeous day in the woods with my best hunting bud, chasing whitetails and making memories. Things are really starting to heat up and the rut will be in full swing here in Michigan very soon!

Shoot Straight,

Tex

Tex and I put an ambush on a monster Bellevue buck on Sunday and handed out a Dirtnap on video.

Check out the video of us piling up this stud buck at the link below.

Opie sticks a stud buck

Best of luck to all my fellow archery hunters.

Be safe and shoot straight.

Opie

Opie with His Opening Day Buck in the Fog

Well we had a tough deer season here in Michigan. Early season had us hopeful that we would really get into the deer but the deer and conditions just wouldn’t cooperate. We were plagued with warm temperatures, huge storms, rain and wind. Add to those factors a bright full moon during peak rut times and you end up with possibly the worst recipe for daytime deer movement.

But despite all these factors we persisted and continued to hunt hard despite the lack of deer sightings from our stands.

Things all changed for me on opening day of Michigan gun season when I had a great encounter with my first shooter buck of the season. It was a warm morning and the fog was so thick I couldn’t see more than 20 yards until an hour after dawn. At 830, staring out into the fog I was startled by the distinct thundering of a 12 gauge coming from the woods were PT was sitting. A few moments later I received an excited text from PT letting me know that he had sent an ounce of hot lead through a shooter buck. He new he had a solid hit on him with good blood but could see that the deer had went over 100 yards and was apprehensive about the shot he had made. I assured him that we would find him and told him I would come get him from his stand at 10 to help track the big boy down.

At 9:30, just as the fog began to lift around my stand i peered out of my blind to see a bruiser of a buck slowly sneak out of the standing corn to my north. I stared at him and slowly reached for my gun wondering just how big he was. A moment later he turned and began slowly walk away from me revealing an impressive rack. I quickly pulled up my 20 gauge and put the iron sights right on him. I let out a loud bleat and he came to a stop broadside at 60 yards. I squeezed the trigger and felt the recoil of the shotgun. The buck jumped, kicked and landed in the grass looking around in bewilderment. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t hit and once again put the sights on him and squeezed off another round. Another jump kick from the buck and he slowly started walking towards the swamp to my south. What the heck I thought, how am I missing him? So I took my time and put it on his front shoulder and slowly squeezed one more time. The shotgun barked and the buck dropped in his tracks. I had my first shooter buck of the season but had surely used up all of my luck for the year.

I couldn’t believe it and neither could PT when I texted him that i had a bruiser buck down on the ground. Within minutes he was walking up to my stand and we were heading over to get our paws on him.  After snapping a few pictures to send around to the boys we jumped in the truck and headed out to find PT’s buck. His buck was a little less eager to die than mine and the tracking job was pretty extensive. After trailing his buck over 400 yards we finally spotted him dead in his bed on an oak ridge. The smile on PT’s face as he rushed up to his buck was enough to make the day worthwhile.

PT with his Opening Day 8 Pointer

What a day that was! It really doesn’t get any better than that. Being out with friends and family in the woods, enjoying the tradition of hunting on a beautiful morning and the experiences and memories that are shared along the way.  That is definitely one opening day that will stay with me for a long long time.

Opie