Family, Food, and Fun. That’s what most people think of when Thanksgiving Day comes around. Although I think of the same things, I also think of blaze orange jackets and a full morning of hunting! Here in Wisconsin, I am not the only one that thinks this way. Every year Thanksgiving falls on the sixth day of the nine day gun deer season. Of course, some have their deer by now and some have given up by this point in the season, but this is the point in the season where you need to give it everything you’ve got. Living just a half hour away from the famous Buffalo County, known for its big bucks, we knew there was big ones out there!
Up until Thanksgiving Day, I hadn’t seen a deer all season. It was a slower than average opening weekend for most, but we knew the deer had to be somewhere. There was a light, brisk breeze passing through the frosted pine needles. We had just finished two deer drives through the public land that consists of pine trees with no luck, and decided to do a drive on a little patch of oaks that was on the edge of the pine grove. I sent my brother and a friend up to the top of the hill to start, and I positioned myself at the other end so I could see into the flat and get a good shot no matter where the deer came from. The drive started of slow, I could hear my brother yelling to my friend through the woods, “Logan, come this way a little.”
It was looking like it was going to be another unsuccessful drive, so I took out my phone and started texting my girlfriend. She had wanted me to shoot a deer so bad, and I just kept disappointing her. I told her we haven’t seen anything, which was the usual for this season.
Of course, the moment I said that, everything changed. I heard brush crashing and it was getting louder by the second, but the brush was so thick I couldn’t see anything coming. I quickly tucked my phone back into my pocket. The crashing became louder and louder until all of a sudden, out of the thickest patch of brush, a doe came running right at me. I shouldered my 12 gauge quickly. She was so close I couldn’t even find her in my scope! 30 yards, 20 yards, 10 yards, BOOM! My slug found itself lodged right behind the mature does shoulder and she dropped on the spot. As soon as I saw her drop, another deer followed the same trail. It was a small 6 point buck. In the heat of the moment, I decided to pull up on him too. I put my crosshairs behind his shoulder as he was at full stride and shot, twice. Unfortunately, he disappeared into the pine grove with no sign of injury.
I whipped out my phone and texted my girlfriend “GOT ONE!!”
Then, I yelled to my brother and told him I had a doe down! Even though it was only a doe, I couldn’t have been happier! As he and Logan finished the small drive and I went to make sure I didn’t hit the buck. I walked to where I saw him enter the pines, and red greeted me as I stepped closer. Yes, I hit the buck too. This worried me, because I had no idea how good my shot was. I walked back over to the guys that were walking through the brush towards me. I pointed out where I had the doe down and told them I had blood on the buck. We walked over to the blood I found and started to follow it into the pines. We had good blood and we were looking down the rows of pines looking for him. The third row came and not more than 20 yards in was my buck, dead! We quickly walked up to him. We found that my shot found its way right behind his shoulder too!
Again, the phone comes out. “GOT TWO!!”
He was beautiful! Definitely not the biggest buck I have shot, but for this season, it was truly a trophy. And of course, with both of my tags filled by 10:00 AM, we got the deer registered and hung up with plenty of time to get ready for our family’s Thanksgiving!
