Jay the Hunter Scores First Deer

Jay Creagh can add hunter to his list of outdoor achievements now, having bagged a mule deer doe in his first attempt at hunting. Jay was hunting in Livingston, Montana with a friend of his when he dropped his quarry after missing a buck that had been running with the doe.

Congrats Jay! Just wait 'til you move back to Wisconsin.

Buck Scores Tallied

After using the Boone & Crockett online measuring link, which is posted on the left of the blog. We determined the following scores for deer shot:

James 8 pt 2006 score: 135
Chris 8 pt 2003 score: 88 6/8
Dad 11 pt 2005 score: 87 2/8
James 9 pt 2000 score: 84 4/8

Dad Bags Second Deer of Season

Wednesday night, Dad headed out to Jim Jost's property just down Point Creek Road and hunted Jim's creekbed in hopes of seeing some deer. Shortly before dark, a doe walked in front of Dad's blind and Dad carefully lined his 2o gauge for the shot. Dad pulled the trigger and MISS! Shot again. MISS! Dad packed up his camo tent and headed out to make sure both shots had missed their target. On his way out, he jumped the doe again and it took off for the field. Dad tossed the tent off his back and dropped everything but the gun and a chase ensued. Dad climbed the gully along the creek and there was the deer, out in the field. Stopped. Dad lined up for a second opportunity and this time aimed true, felling the doe. The doe was then dropped off at the Jost house in thanks for the opportunity to hunt the property for deer, squirrels and rabbits. Not to mention the bottle or two of Apple Jack (Lauren's favorite). That should put a wrap on this year's gun deer season. Now on to rabbits and a pheasant hunt in two weeks.

Gun Deer Season 2006: Day #2

Sunday morning has come. We got two deer on Saturday and were quite happy with those results. Chris and Devon went to the thicket woods that we got the doe from the day before. Dad went up on top of the hill to sit in a frequently used draw that leads onto the flat and James went back to Rob's stand in the back of the valley. At 7:00 am, my (James') hunting fortunes changed. I had only gotten one buck ever before, a nice nine-pointer that I had gotten bowhunting with Rob down in what is now known as "Sleeping Deer Corner". I had decided before heading out that since we had gotten two deer on Saturday, I wasn't shooting anything unless it was a nice buck. It wasn't even 6:30 when three does came up from behind the stand and walked further up the ravine. I held off, even though I had an easy shot, maintaining my desire to wait and see if a bigger buck would come through. 30 minutes later, a lone doe came back down the ravine towards me and behind it, the buck of bucks. You gotta understand, I never see deer like this when I'm hunting so my heart was just pounding. So much so that the doe kept looking over my way and I could swear she could hear it. The buck stayed behind her and was unfortunately behind a tree. For the first few minutes, one or the other was always looking downhill in my direction, making it impossible to even raise my gun. Finally the doe turned and the buck put his head down to nibble on some acorns or something and I was able to bring up my 20 guage (now referred to as the "Magic Gun" because it is apparently a deer magnet and whomever is using it sees deer). All I had to do was wait for him to come out from behind the tree. Seconds later he did that as the doe ambled further across the hillside and "BAM". The buck fell almost instantly. I climbed down the tree, only to realize that A) I hadn't made sure the deer was dead and wouldn't run away before I climbed down and B) I couldn't see where it was anymore either. Lickety-split I reclimbed that stand in record pace to get a visual. The buck was still there and out of the corner of my eye, about a 100 yards away on the next ridge was another buck, same size. I'm thinking... you gotta be kidding me, what the heck. I gave one quick grunt on my grunt call in hopes of getting its attention and bringing it my way. All that did was piss off the buck I had shot, which I now realized wasn't dead. It stood up and got around a huge fallen tree and went out of sight. Needless to say, I was a little worried I might lose this deer so I climbed down again and crept up to the fenceline to get a look. I could just see the antlers over this fallen down tree and decided to try to put a kill shot in from where I was. Mistake. I missed and the deer took off again. It was definately wounded from my first shot and I could tell it hadn't gone far so I crawled under the fence and snuck up to the fallen down tree. I could see it about thirty yards away, uphill, so I rested my gun on the tree and took the shot. YES! OH CRAP! I had killed it, but it fell over the edge of the fifty foot deep gully that runs through the bottom of the ravine. I looked over the edge and realized that I now had to drag it nearly 100 yards out of this mess, over one fallen tree, under another and so on. Out came the cellphone. First call was to Rob, who had put up a wonderful tree stand. Second was to Jen and the boys who were in church and just got a winded message. Next was Chris who was too far away to help and was hopefully seeing deer of his own. I called my Dad and he and Ron brought back the ATV to haul it out. It took all three of us to lift it onto the back of the ATV, even after it was field dressed.

After getting numerous pictures taken, Chris headed out towards the ridge again, in search of the buck I had seen with the one I had gotten. He took the "Magic Gun" for extra luck and took off. As he approached the stand he was looking for, the buck, which had picked the same spot to nap with his doe, jumped up and took off, earning only a wild, errant shot from Chris at a deer moving at what seemed like Mach Speed. I had headed into the back of the valley with my dad to follow a blood trail we had found while carting out my deer. We used the opportunity to push the ridge back towards Chris and I was fortunate enough to kick up another buck, a six pointer. It stood up on the top of the knoll between Chris and I. I froze, anticipating the shot that was to come from Chris as he bagged our second buck of the day. Then the deer took off. Right at Chris, passing almost directly under the treestand he was in. Alas, scope troubles and another fast moving deer resulted in another miss, but apparently there's some truth to this Magic Gun thing. We hiked around a bit more but didn't see anymore deer that weekend. We filled the coolers we brought and needed another one from Dale Theobald to transport all the meat home. What a season!

Gun Deer Season 2006: Day #1

It's the first time in four years that we have hunted during the traditional gun deer season since CWD was found in the Barneveld area. This year, the DNR eliminated the Halloween Gun Hunt as we referred to it and went back to its season of old. The temps were great and the deer were cooperative. We left for Barneveld from the Vater House at 2:00 am, made a swing through Madison to pick up Chris and headed out to the Theobald farm. We knew we weren't the only ones who knew where to go since the four cars in front of us also made the left turn onto County Trunk K and headed south from Barneveld.

Opening morning was quiet for our group which consisted of James, Chris, Devon, Dad, and James' Dad Gary Maurer and uncle, Ron Maurer. No one saw any deer during the morning sit, but as Dad & Devon were walking through a thicket (actually Dad walked through it and Devon kind of hovered near the edge), they kicked up a six-point buck. After some wild shots from Bob & Gary, the deer took off across the expanse of fields atop the hill. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Chris and James had sat down for a nice Swiss Cake Roll breakfast when they heard some crashing in the woods behind the tractor barn. All of a sudden four cats came flying out of the woods, heading for the cover of the cow barn and the same six-pointer trotted around the corner into view. The little buck hit the skids immediately upon seeing the wary hunters and backtracked himself into the woods. We got up, grabbed guns and took off on either side of the building to get a shot. The buck intelligently ran through the little yard area next to the house, preventing any hopes of shooting at it, crossed the road and took off across the flat to live another day.

After the group returned to the farm, another hunter on the farm brought by his nine-pointer he had just shot on the other side of the homestead. He had said there were several does travelling with the buck and we decided to push out the nearest thickets. With Dad on post and Devon, James and Chris walking through the brush, three does jumped up in front of James near the end of the drive. One gun shot later by James and the group was on the run and Dad's 30-06 was launching semi-automatic shells after the fleeing deer. A big doe fell in the foray and it was determined later during "autopsy" that James' 20 guage slug mostly likely did the deed. With one deer in the bag, we cleaned it, dragged it to the road, loaded it into the trailer and headed to town to register it.

While registering, we headed up to the Eagle Mart where possibly the funniest thing of the weekend occurred. Now I understand if this is a little more funny if you were there to see it but we'll give it a try. Everyone knows Devon. Devon can be a dope sometimes. Devon and Chris grabbed as Subway sandwich and a cup of water from the restaurant. As we were walking back out to the van, across the paved parking lot, Devon apparently tripped over his own two feet, throwing his water halfway across the parking lot and nearly onto Dad's back. What made it funny was that Devon, not realizing that Chris and I had witnessed the entire event, quickly put the cup to his mouth, making it look like nothing had happened and that it was still completely full of water. This trip is always good for a chuckle at some point.

After returning to the farm that afternoon, Devon and James headed to the big fields across County K. Chris climbed up the Pine Tree Stand which had served him well in the past and Dad headed back to Rob's stand in the back end of the valley. After dark, we went to skin and cut up our doe and noticed after several minutes that Dad was not coming back yet. We sent Chris back to find him and twenty minutes later, they arrived with the ATV and another deer on the back. A "Bob Deer" as we so call them, all 100 lbs soaking wet but tender as veal. So Happy Bob took the deer to town to register it, which took an hour and a half due to all the hunters at the registration station. While Dad went to town, the rest of us finished cutting up the doe we had. When he got back, we hung up the "Bob Deer", went to the hotel, showered, went to Pizza Hut and five minutes after getting back to our rooms were asleep. End of Day #1.

Game Feed Inventory Growing

The 3rd Annual Bob Vater Game Feed, which is scheduled for sometime this upcoming January, is beginning to fill the freezer quite nicely. Stored away are a lb. of venison jerky, five squirrels, one rabbit, four geese and one very stupid turkey (see previous post). There's probably a few doves in there and a squirrel or two added in Bob's recent visits to the Jost property. Hopefully next weekend's Barneveld Gun Hunt will net us a few nice venison steaks as well. More to come.

James Bags His Turkey...with the car.

After missing during the October Hunt, I was taking a few back roads from Sheboygan to Manitowoc when a huge group of turkey attempted to cross the road in front of my car on Center Road, just south of the Vater House. Since I am always preaching about "don't worry about the animal or the car, just stay out of the ditch and don't swerve.", I felt obliged to practice that mantra. Of the fifteen or so turkeys, eight clearly made it to the other side, six somehow made to the ditch and one just didn't have a clue. Upon stopping and verifying that the turkey was indeed dead, it was tossed on the backseat floor and taken to be cleaned. I guess, all the work put into the previous weekend was unneccessary....yeah right.

Rob Narrowly Misses 8-pointer

On his way back to UW-Platteville, Rob took the short 5 minute jaunt off Hwy 151 to spend the afternoon hunting the Theobald Farm in Barneveld, Wisconsin. We had seen a pair of bucks the previous weekend on the flat, a 4 pt and nice 8 pt and Rob had earmarked the 8 pt for his trophy case on this visit. Not too disappoint, shortly after arriving, both made their appearances near Rob and the creek-side stand he had chosen. After numerous grunts and chases through the thickets, the big 8 pt made itself available a distant 35 yards away. Rob drew and let the arrow fly. It sailed just under the mighty beast and for the rest of the afternoon, the wary buck would not present itself a target again. Nevertheless, it is exciting to just see deer, not to mention big deer, which seem to populate the ravines and thickets of what can only be called "God's country". Chris, Bob, Devon, James and James' dad Gary will be on the farm on the 18th & 19th in hopes of refilling the freezer with some venison which stands empty in the Maurer basement.