By Anthony Wagner

There are many hunts that we remember no matter how long ago they were or how many deer we have gotten since that hunt. They are the ones that stick with you and that you look back on when you need to remember what made you want to drag your butt out of bed well before first light, The times that makes you want to walk through knee deep water to try and get to a spot that no one has sat in before to see if you can get that dream buck that comes walking down the trail as the sun is rising behind him making him look bigger than life! This is a story of one of those times!

This is the story of the first deer I ever shot. The month was October, the rut was just starting, I remember that because I had my grunt call with me knowing I might have a better shot at getting a deer if I used it! (whether I used it right, God only knows) I was 12 years old with a 30 lb PSE bow that I was just able to draw back after shooting all summer long to get my muscles used to the feeling! My dad was sitting just down from me about 75 yards on the treeline we were on that lined a hay field with a corn field just beyond it. The sun was going down and I was thinking it was going to be another night that i was going to get skunked, I was wrong!

I heard them coming through the woods behind me circling around to my left, they came into the field and started working back to the right, I prepared to take my shot as i knew that i would not have much time because they were moving very quickly. I can’t remember whether i tried to stop them or not either way they didn’t stop and I picked the bigger of the two and let the arrow fly as it came out of its trot and came to a walk. The deer tucked its tail and ran straight down the tree line with the arrow sticking out of it and ducked into the woods! I replayed the shot in my mind and couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t good, but being inexperienced I didn’t know and walked up to the truck and waited for dad. I explained what happened and we decided to try and pick up the trail if we could, after just getting into the trees following the little blood we could find we came upon my arrow and it did not look good. I was thinking that my shot was forward when in reality it was back!

So after backing out for the night we went the next morning and picked up my grandpa and headed back out to the spot where we found my arrow. After deciding to grid search the area we started the first grid, and after only going about 20 yards I could see a white belly. So filled with excitement I ran up to the deer only to stop just short of it realizing that not only was this my first deer but it was also a small fork horn! I guess looking back I was so worried about making the shot that I failed to look at the deer’s head to see the small set of antlers sitting between its ears! That hunt was 12 years ago already and even though I have shot many deer since then, some bigger and some smaller I believe that that hunt was one of the most memorable hunts I have had and helped instill in me the love of the hunt!

By Anthony Wagner

The day was Saturday October 30th 2016, I was set up just between two large growths of maple trees, on a thin belt of popples that was between two swamps. The night before, October 29th, I had set up on the edge of the maples to the East that were closer to the freshly cut corn field that was about 100 yards from me, it was one of those nights that you knew you were going to at least get a chance at something. Unfortunately for me as i would come to find out I had decided to sit at the base of a tree just to far from the small clearing i had found in the patch of popples.

About an hour before dark i could hear something coming up the trail that i knew was not a squirrel for sure this time, sure enough i could see a doe and two fawns working straight towards me. That night though it was just not meant to be because as they came up to the clearing they turned and went to the field in the other direction. As fate would have though they had attracted a friend. I could see him coming through the brush on the same trail they had taken except that when he got to the clearing he came into it heading straight to my shooting lane. He was what everyone imagines when they think of a 150″ ten point, he was perfect. As i got ready to draw back my bow he did what every hunter has nightmares of.. he stopped, just one step from the opening i had decided on right behind a large oak and then did what i still replay over in my head. (one of the times which has caused me to take scent control more seriously.) He put his head to the ground where i had walked in and turned his head and looked right at me, what he did next was even more frustrating. I knew that he had picked me off but instead of turning tail and running he just calmly turned around and walked back into the thick of the woods never to be seen again.

So the next night I went to where those 4 deer had come from and wedged myself between a group of 3 trees and started to grunt, as soon as i grunted I heard one coming so I tried to calm my nerves to prepare to take a shot at what i thought was that big ten. Instead what came into view in the swamp was a much smaller but still a nice 9 point, there was no doubt in my mind that i was going to shoot him if he gave me the chance. After what seemed like forever of him standing still at 50 yards looking for a buck to fight with I decided to put the grunt in my jacket and give it a quiet grunt.. That got his attention, he dropped his head and proceeded to grunt and tear apart trees as he walked on the trail that was maybe 5 yards from me. I knew i wouldn’t be able to stop him since he was going to be so close to me and to make matters worse there was a branch hanging right where i wanted to take my shot, So I did what I could and drew back as I slid my back down the tree to get beneath the branch, I put my pin where I wanted to hit and slowly squeezed the release. THUMP! Instead of that glorious sound of THWACK!. My shot was back and I knew it instantly, he ran about 40 yards and stopped hunched up with a pain in his stomach that I am sure matched my own. I waited for dark and backed out as quietly as possible back to the truck. When I got back to the truck I found out my brother at the age of 12 had made a perfect shot on a doe not more than 200 yards from me. So as we found, field dressed and loaded his deer i relayed my nights adventure to my 2 brothers and dad while waiting by the truck to give my deer more time.

We did not have a lot of time to make a plan because of weather that was moving in so we decided to see what we had for a blood trail after 3 hours of letting him sit. after finding my arrow where he stopped after i shot him it was not looking promising and we ended up losing blood maybe 100 yards from the shot, with rain starting to come down we decided to back out and grid search the entire property the next morning and if we didn’t find him before church we would come back after. So after searching for nearly 3 hours in the knee deep swamp without finding anything we decided we would check the woods after church. But before heading to the truck we were going to go through two grass strips on our way back. I worked through one and didn’t see anything while my brothers worked the other. I could hear them yell as I was headed to the truck so i started running to them to see what was up. They told me they had jumped my buck this being nearly 14 hours after i had shot him. We headed back and went to church and grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the woods. After searching the woods we found the deer bedded and i put another arrow in him watched him fall. We all let out a scream of triumph as we finally put an end to the two most gut wrenching exciting hunts I have had to this day!