This is a story that has been ten years in the making. When I was 13, I finally got my feet wet and got my hunting license. That fall was my first time ever bowhunting for whitetails. I remember it clear as day the first time I ever went out bow hunting. I fell asleep, only to wake up to a four pointer right in front of me. One thing led to another and in deciding if I should shoot it or not my dad accidentally spooked it. The rest of the season went by with no other real close encounters. This seemed to be a recurring pattern from when I was 13 all the way up until I was a junior in high school. Prior to this I could only get out a couple times a year with my dad. This was due to the fact that where I had to hunt you had to park in the spot and I wasn’t old enough to drive.
Finally, when I was a junior, I started trying out new spots all on the same piece of public land. It was the same story over and over again. I would get monster bucks at night on camera and would never see anything during the day. My senior year rolled around, I still hadn’t harvested a deer at the start of that hunting season. I practiced my butt off shooting in my backyard making sure I was going to be ready when one did walk by. The whole month of October went by and I only had does come in to me wherever I sat. I regretfully never took one and I don’t know why. Looking back on it I wish I did because it would have been really good practice.
The November rut rolled around and one day I had the biggest buck I have ever seen in person or on camera came in to forty yards. This deer was so freaking huge its neck and body were practically dragging on the ground. It’s rack was unbelievable like no other ten pointer I had ever seen before. This thing was a certified giant. My friends still think that I’m full of shit when I talk about this deer. I grunted him in from about a hundred yards in to forty and he got hung up. He was broadside, I drew back, shot, watched him run a couple of yards, he stopped, looked back, then trotted away. I had buck fever and it screwed me over in the end. I had just missed low under his vitals. That buck got away and I had legitimate awful nightmares about that encounter for months.
After that I stopped deer hunting cold turkey. I was mentally wrecked after that experience and my focus switched over to duck hunting. It wasn’t until about three years later that I decided to pick up the bow again and give deer hunting another shot. I started off with going to a public land spot, up by the college that I attended. I was only able to get out twice that season. I saw a couple of does with no shots and that was it. However, it was enough to spark my interest and love for whitetail hunting again. The next year came and went only seeing a couple of does and getting one close encounter. Let me tell you, when I say close encounter, I mean close! This doe was walking down the ridgeline that I was sitting on. The main trail was in the middle of this hill but she decided to walk right down the side that I was sitting on. She was moving at a good trot towards me. About ten yards from me, she went out of view because a tree was between us. In my head I’m thinking this doe is gonna walk left and be at the edge of my arrow.
Finally, I see her nose peek out from behind the tree. On the opposite side that I chose. I slowly start to turn by body before she gets her eyes in front of the tree. I could not have been more quiet. I was able to move about 60 degrees to get my drawn arrow on the side she was on. The doe takes one small step forward and her whole head peaked out behind the tree. The way I am sitting if she moves her foot one more step, she would be stepping on my left foot. All she needs to do is take one more tiny step and her vitals would be literally at the tip of my arrow. She puts her head down and basically sniffs my foot and spooked. She was off. All in all that was the highlight of that season. A doe spooked by my stinky feet.
Flash forward to this year. For those of you that have read my blog you know I have harvested my first doe on October 5th (if you haven’t read that go back and read it, it’s a good story) and that I have been in the woods a decent amount this year. On Thursday morning it was going to be around 30 degrees. I decided to take off of work to try and see if I could see the rut in action. I got up at 5:00 am and was in the car and at the spot by 5:30 am. As I started to walk up to my stand I look up from my trail and see about 10-13 different sets of eyes staring at me. “Shit my hunt is over before it’s even started” is all I could think. None of the deer even spoke, I didn’t hear any running or anything as I continued on up the trail. I climbed up my tree and as I take my foot off the last step to get into my tree I hear running. I see the ghostly silhouette of two deer running down the hill past my stand. I had high hopes for the rest of the morning but all I saw was a tiny spike and a really small doe. I packed it up and went home around noon. That night the weatherman said we were going to get about three inches of snow.
The next morning I got up thirty minutes earlier than the previous day at 4:30 am. I was in the car and at my spot by 5:00 am. Getting up earlier was definitely worth it. I saw no deer on my way in and as I climbed into my stand I hadn’t even put my safety harness on and there was a buck grunting and chasing a doe behind me. The dow ran downhill and the buck ran back uphill. Sunrise came around at 6:53 am and I saw some deer running around up the hill from me. They were too far to determine what they were. Five minutes goes by and that tiny doe from the day before ran up the ridge behind me. Right away I knew why. A decent size six pointer was right on her trail. Nose glued to the ground. He was thirty yards from me with no shot. I watched him move out of sight, I slowly turn my head to look down hill and see a decent sized doe walking up the hill towards me. In my head im jacked up because I have one more doe tag and I am literally starving for meat in my freezer. Then I realized there was an even bigger doe behind her. My adrenaline is going and I’m starting to get the shakes pretty good. They are both b-linen it right for me.
I noticed that they both ran up a little and then slowed down and then they did it again. The first time it happened I didn’t think much of it, once they did it the second time the thought. “Hey maybe there’s a big ol’ nasty buck chasen them”. I look down to slowly and quietly rearranged my feet, to make sure I’m in good shooting position. I look up and all I see is this big ol’ buck! His head down to the ground keeping his nose on those does trail, and he’s coming straight for me. I can literally see this things breath as he’s coming towards me. He chases the does in a quick spurt of energy and they both get chased directly under my tree stand. At this point he is still fifty yards away but he’s got his head plastered to the ground chasing these does. He comes in at a clip to thirty yards and stops. He acted as if his mood had changed. He went from being really concerned with those does to more of a feeding mode.
As this buck inches closer to me I am shaking like a freaking leaf in a tornado. I feel the adrenaline shot off my kidneys and pump through my heart. I yell at myself in my head that “you are not allowed to get excited until this buck is dead”. I tell myself that I don’t know how many times. Until I get to the point where I am screaming at myself in my head. I finally take a couple of deep breaths and I feel ready. My mindset goes from screaming at myself not to get excited to “I am going to kill this buck”. I keep saying it over and over again in my head. As the buck inches closer from thirty yards his head goes behind a tree. I take a quick glance down to make sure those does don’t see me. I look back and draw my arrow as slowly and quietly as I can. The buck takes a step out from behind the tree. Hes at twenty-five yards with no shot but he’s still moving forward. The buck needs to take two more steps and he will have walked into a clearing but he stops. I’m full draw and I’m stuck. This was weird for me because I remember the thoughts I was thinking. Usually at this point I black out. However, I remember telling myself, “of course this was gonna happen”. My mind then shifts back to yelling at myself in my head to “stay calm, stay on target, don’t get tierd, don’t make a stupid shot, take your time, use good judgment, pick a spot”.
Two minutes pass… The buck takes two steps forward and one step to his right. Giving me a quartering away shot. I yell at myself, “do not make a stupid shot”. I put my sight right on his second to last rib. Click… The next thing I remember is watching the deer rear up and kick his back legs as high as they could up in the air. I couldn’t believe it, in my head I’m thinking, “I can’t believe I noticed that”. The deer kicking his legs up usually means you hit him in the heart. I feel like I just assumed in that moment that my mind would go black. However, I felt this extreme sense of clarity.
The buck ran to his right towards the end of the ridge and then turned left uphill. My mind went right back to the thought that I somehow fucked up. I was consumed by anxiety, and was extremely hard on myself for those few short moments thinking that I somehow messed up. The buck ran only twenty yards and stopped facing me. My mind going a million miles an hour quickly racked another arrow, and ranged him thinking that I missed. I was preparing to get another shot off. Then in the chaos that was my mind at this moment that clarity comes back. I hear the slightest pitter-patter. I take the buck out of view of my range finder and just look at him with my eyes. To my surprise that pitter-patter was still there. I put back up my range finder and look to the ground under the buck and see that the ground at his feet is starting to turn red. I tell myself again, “you are not allowed to get excited until your hands are on that buck”.
The two does inch closer to the buck as if to investigate what was going on. I look back over to the buck and notice that his head once held high was slowly inching its way closer to the ground. I keep telling myself, “your not allowed to get excited, your not allowed to get excited”. Pretty quickly from when his head started hovering over the ground his head started moving back and forth. It started with a small movement, then more and more he started moving side to side. Soon his body and head both were moving side to side. He lost his balance and stumbled, quickly he took a stutter step and kept himself from falling. He stood there for another moment and then feel down to lie on his stomach. He put his head up against his side and didn’t move. I told myself that I wasn’t allowed to get excited I sat there for a few moments just watching. Soon I quickly took out my phone and gave my dad and brother a quick call to let them know what was going on. It was 7:28 at the time exactly 35 minutes after shooting light.
As I sit up in my tree, I am glued to my bino’s watching the deer to see if I can see any movements. Nothing… The buck doesn’t move at all in those first ten minutes. A four pointer sneaks up behind me, but I am still glued to this buck. I gave myself the time of nine o’clock is when I was allowed down to get a look at the deer. Right after I made that decision in my head the buck picks up his head. My heart and stomach drop to the floor. My mind starts racing, “did I make a bad shot? Is he going to get up? Am I going to have to put an arrow in him?” The buck then tries to get up and can’t get his back legs up. I started playing the situation out in my head if I should get down and try and get another one in him.
Then that sense of clarity comes back. Most times when you shoot a deer it runs out of sight and it passes out of view. In my case I feel that I am having a very close experience with this deer since it’s only thirty-one yards away. I think to myself that this is what would have been going on if the deer was out of sight. I reassure myself that I did a good job and that I need to sit tight. The buck tries one more time to get up and in his frantic attempt slides fifteen yards down the mountain almost up against a tree and he stops. He flickers his tail two or three more times and that was it. I sat and waited until nine anxiety and a plethora of other emotions pouring through my head as I wait.
Nine o’clock hits I slowly got down and quietly made my way over to the deer. I snuck up behind him and shoved him pretty good with my foot and he didn’t move. It’s weird to say but you would think that I wouldn’t remember shooting the deer and that my mind would have went blank then. Thinking back on it after I shoved that deer and knew it was dead, my mind went blank. I know I grabbed the deer by its left antler and tried picking it up to see how heavy it was. I counted the points and couldn’t believe it was an eight pointer. I remember then going to my knees and just sitting there amazed at this beautiful animal and just feeling truly blessed, lucky, happy, and I was happy all by myself. It was just me and this deer.
After some time went by and I was admiring the deer. I facetimed my Dad at work. My Dad was my first hunting buddy and even though he was four hundred miles away I felt like he was right there with me celebrating my first buck. I gave him the low down on what happened. I showed him my stand, where the deer came in, where the shot placement was, everything. That conversation I remember clear as day. Soon after my best bud from home facetimed me along with my cousin and my mom. It was awesome to feel this sense of comradery from friends and family who were all on the other side of the state.
Now it was time for the real work to start. I got to gutting the deer all by myself. I dragged it ten yards down hill and tied the front and back legs to a tree. That way it would be easier to work with. When I got the deer all opened up it was easy to see that I made a great shot on this buck. I essentially sliced his liver in half, hit his lungs, and put a nice nick in his heart. I was excited to save the heart from this buck because I wasn’t able to from my last doe. This gutting experience compared to the last doe I harvested was much better. It went by much quicker and from the time I started to the time I ended my good friend Andy was already pulled up at the spot waiting to help get the big ol’ buck home.
The rest of the day my best bud Andy and I celebrated with some tasty beverages. We got the deer strung up in the backyard of my fraternity’s house and we got the whole deer skinned and quartered out and in the YETIi in a couple of hours. This will be a day I will never forget.
The story of this buck was ten years in the making and I have to say it was damn sure worth the wait. In that ten years I did a lot of growing both as a person and as a hunter. I’m glad it did take as long as it did and I would not change the narrative for a second. I learned many important lessons in that ten years like patience, humility, being mentally tough, not letting your heart and body mess with your judgment. Besides growing as a person and a hunter I also feel I developed a set of morals that align exactly with who I am as a person. I think there are three main reasons why I hunt. First, is for the meat. Second, is for the time in the out of doors in nature doing what I love. Lastly, would be spending time with friends and family. If I learned anything and could shed a little light on any new hunter or seasoned hunter it would be to just hang in there because it will happen eventually.
This story is most certainly not over. Keep an eye out for my next blog post where I dive into what happens next on this absolutely amazing week.
-Colin Hickey
Leaky Waders 