I know many of my customers are hunters so I thought I would post this report on my recent hunting adventures.

Last week I traveled out to western MA to hunt with my nephew Tom in the Berkshire Hills.  I have hunted out here for many years and always enjoy getting out in the real woods as I call them.  I do hunt locally (and am still chasin a real bruiser near my home), but its just not the same watching cars go by while hunting in the small patches of woods suburbia provides.  Fortunately, the deer don't seem to mind and some monster bucks are taken each year near my home.

The morning of my hunt dawned relatively warm (30 degrees) and I hoped that the rut was far enough along so a few bucks would be out chasing does and offer a chance for a shot.  In my stand by 0530,  I waited for dawn to appear.  Watching the woods come alive in the morning  is one of my favorite time of day.  As murky shapes in the woods develope contrast,  I keep looking for movement that betrays the approach of my quarry.

Around 0700 I detected some movement on the ridge high above my stand.  As I watched intently,  bright points of light appeared out of the brush...antlers were making their way down the hill toward me.  At first the buck appeared to be a nice 4 point but as he grew closer I saw that a beautiful 8 pt rack was carried on his  a full body.  I was seated in my stand and the buck was approaching from my right side so all I could do was to hope he would pass by and enable me to get into shooting position.  As he approached I tried to avoid eye contact and only concentrate on when and how to make my move.  15 yds out he stops and makes two large scrapes on the ground and then looks directly at me.  I thought sure he had me pegged but I refused to even breath so as not to give myself away. 

With the cloud cover that day I probably looked like a large bump on the tree and after 10 minutes  he proceeded to walk directly toward me and passed beneath my stand.  As he did I raised my bow and I think he must have heard my heart beating and he took two quick jumps toward the swamp's edge I was hunting.  I came to full draw and prayed that he would stop...my prayers were answered but he was now behind a large tree that was blocking his vitals.  He started sneaking away but turned ever so slightly and exposed his left side offering a tight quartering away shot.  A check of my No Peep showed my anchor was perfect, my single pin picked out the hair on his chest I wanted to slice, my back shoulder muscles tensed and the release went off.  The lumenock on my arrow traced the shaft's flight through the deer on exactly the spot I was aiming for.  The buck exploded into the swamp but then stopped and walked away with his tail down.

After ten minutes I climbed down from the stand and found my arrow stuck in the mud.  Covered with tallow and blood I new the hit was a good one, and possibly a heart shot so I decided to give him time to expire and retreated to my truck,  I put a call into my nephew who offered to come help drag him out of the swamp and an hour later we started tracking him.  Tom is an excellent hunter and knows these woods even better than I and that knowledge came in real handy this day. 

As many deer as I have shot I am always amazed at their will to survive.  We tracked this deer for 8/10 of a mile before we found him.  The shot had taken out the left lung entirely but missed the right lung and the heart by a fraction of an inch.  If it wasnt for Tom I might have never found that deer as the swamp he took us through caused us to lose the trail numerous times.  Tom had a sense of where he might head and his instincts paid off.

A perfectly symmetrical 8 point rack and a dressed weight of 182lbs makes this the finest buck I have taken to date with a bow.  Here is a  photo of my buck and I hope all of you who hunt are having success and hanging them as well!

Finally, I am thinking about adding a hunting page to my web site,  so send me the photos of your  trophies and a short story and I will post them up for everyone to enjoy reading during these long winter months!

Straight Shootin,

Capt George