I've been spending as much time as I can in the woods these days.  With two young kids at home and having been gone all summer fishing that time hasn't amounted to much, but at least I've been able to get out there once or twice a week for a couple of hours at a clip.  I've been seeing lots of deer every time out, but I hadn't seen the buck I was looking for....until the evening of October 30th.  I got into my stand at about 5:15pm that night and got myself settled in.  I hadn't seen much other than a few does until 6:00pm.  That's when I heard something coming out of the thicket behind my stand.  I gave a quick look over my right shoulder and all I saw was a head full of antlers less than 30 yards from my stand! The adrenaline immediately started pumping and I stood up and got my bow ready.  I didn't know how big of a buck he was; I never stopped to count the points on his rack.  All I knew was that he was the biggest deer I'd ever seen in the woods in Central New York.  Within seconds the big buck gave me a 22 yard slightly quartering away shot.  My Mathews Switchback delivered a Gold Tip Hunter XT arrow tipped with a 100 grain G5 Montec broadhead directly into the pumphouse.  Game on!!  My legs started trembling with adrenaline overload immediately after the shot and it was all I could do to contain my excitement.  If you've never shot a deer before then you really have no idea how much of an adrenaline rush goes through your body at that moment.  It's VERY intense.  Even more so when it's the biggest buck of your life!

I knew that I had just arrowed the biggest buck of my life, but it was beginning to get dark.  After what seemed like an eternity, I climbed out of the tree stand and went looking for the blood trail.  I found good blood but lost the trail in some gnarly undergrowth.  Much as I wanted to find that deer right away, I had no daylight left and knew that I couldn't get any of my friends there to help me look for the buck until morning.  So I went home and called Jay and asked if he could help me track the deer in the morning.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink that night.  Jay met me at the house at first light and we headed into the woods.  We picked up the trail where I had lost it the night before and within 15 minutes we had found the deer about 120 yards from my stand.  What a relief to see my buck on the floor of the woods!  When we finally got a good look at the buck we knew that we had a BIG BUCK DOWN. YEAH BABY!!!!   Thanks so much for your help Jay.   If I had to drag that big boy out by myself I might still be in the woods!   I'm glad you were there when we found him.

We haven't had him officially scored yet, but most guesses are that he's going to score right around 125", which would just barely qualify for the Pope & Young record book.  It would be neat if he made it, but I really don't care either way.  I'm just delighted with finally arrowing a trophy animal of my very own.  Here are a few of the pictures we snapped in the woods:








I still have some doe tags to fill, and then there's always gun season! 

It's finally beginning to get a bit colder and thoughts of ski season are beginning to creep into my head.  My new Nordica skis are at the house waiting to be mounted and we're readying the troops in the ski school for another season.   We should be on snow by Dec. 1st if Mother Nature cooperates.

Central NY really is an outdoors paradise.  We're lucky to live here!  So do yourself a favor and get outdoors and enjoy this beautiful place we call "home".

Until next time,
 
Big Buck Down!!

~Capt. Bill