The winter hunt

Ok, I know this is long for a first post, but I feel the story is worth telling.  I hope you read and enjoy.

As my first post, I have decided to post one of the most exciting and rewarding hunts that I have ever experienced.  Additionally, I was fortunate enough to be joined by one of my best friends and hunting buddies, Jason Ramaker.  Incidentally, although my hunts alone are often quite thrilling, they are truly exhilarating and much more fulfilling when experienced with someone else, especially when that someone enjoys hunting as much as you.  It is this reason that this hunt was and remains one of my most memorable to date.  But enough said, on with the story.

To set up the situation, I should first tell you that I had just moved back to Minnesota, but still was fortunate enough to have a deer tag for Wisconsin.  Although I had been fortunate enough to harvest a doe in Minnesota, I was still interested, late in the season, in filling my tag in Wisconsin.  Because Jason was in a similar situation, we decided to make a last ditch effort in the far north woods of Wisconsin, hunting on public land near my wife's aunt and uncles place near Mercer, WI.  Having visited and hunted there earlier in the season, I knew there were plenty of deer to be had, but because of the wide area they covered, and our relative inexperience with the area, I also knew it may be a challenge.  To make things more interesting, there was roughly two feet of snow on the ground, and the temperature was only in the single digits. 

For this hunt, Jason and I met in Wausau and then drove together from there to the cabin on Friday, with plans to hunt Saturday and Sunday (December 29th and 30th, 2007).  We started off on Saturday morning by trekking in on an access road penetrating deep into the area we wanted to hunt.  While we were on a road, the deep snow certainly made us sweat, despite the cold weather.  As we made our way into the area, we took what advantage we could of the snow and paid attention to all the deer sign we could find.  For several hours we scouted and hunted together, but around lunchtime, we split up and went our own ways in order to cover more ground and hopefully for one of us to get a shot on an animal.  While neither of us saw much that first day, we had a great time hunting in that snowy wonderland and we had certainly learned a lot about where the deer seemed to be concentrated and moving, allowing us to form something of a plan for the next day.

As a side note, I had also learned a great deal about hunting in deep snow and extreme cold.  First and foremost, it was not as difficult as one might think to stay warm, unless you stopped moving.  While hiking in the deep snow, one gets quite warm and can sweat quite a bit; but as soon as you stop to take a break, that sweat cools you down quickly to the point where it is necessary to either have hot packs with you or get up again and keep moving.  Secondly, to keep equipment operational, it is absolutely essential that it all be kept out of the snow, and warm when possible.  I learned this the hard way when, having a hard time finding a place to put my bow, I let it sit in the snow several times.  That, and I kept my release in my hand in order to have it ready if I needed it.  As a result, the cams on my bow became completely iced up and my release was so stiff, it was very difficult to open.  In any case, after hunting Saturday, I realized I would have to do a better job keeping my bow out of the snow and my release in my pocket.

On Sunday, we decided, because of the cold, and our plans to fish a little in the afternoon, that we would hunt only the morning and then call it a day/hunt.  So, we again got up relatively early and started out hiking into the area on the same road we had used the day before.  Based on our observations the day before, we decided to hunt together in the area that Jason had scouted in hopes that we could utilize our ability to work together for one of us to get a shot on an animal.  That said, we worked our way into an area full of cedars and plenty of browse, but even till lunch, had not seen hide nor hair of any deer in the area.

At about noon, we were about to give up and head in for lunch and call it a day when I noticed something moving in the distance.  Lo and behold, there they were, a whole heard of six to eight deer, moving slowly through the woods.  Initially, we tried to move slowly in the direction we thought they were moving, but unfortunately, they never came closer than maybe 70 or 80 yards.  Fortunately, with the quietness of the snow, we were able to move slowly and at one point the herd even felt comfortable enough to take a break and bedded down about 100 yards away.  Despite our ability to move, in our attempt to close the distance while they were bedded, they noticed something and hopped up and moved off, but still did not indicate that they were exceptionally spooked.

 As they moved off, we again despaired that we had lost our opportunity, but incredibly enough, just as we were going to head toward home, I noticed that they had swung around and were heading more or less in our direction again.  Because they were already in view, we moved as quickly as we could to get into position, which it should be stated, was not quickly at all.  By matter of chance, I happened to be further forward than Jason and so, when I observed that they were as close as they were going to come, I took the shot.  Now, all things considered, this was quite a shot.  First, I estimated them to be 50 yards away, which is a pretty long shot for most archers, especially when you consider that this deer was relatively small, and that estimating on the ground in the woods can be quite difficult.  To add to the difficulty, I was using my old Hoyt Aspen, which shot no faster than 250 ft/sec, thus accentuating any errors in distance that I might have made.  But, because I had practiced and felt comfortable shooting out to 70 yards, I felt that this was a shot worth taking, especially as there was very little chance that another opportunity would come along.

So, I took the shot.  And was promptly rewarded with what sounded like my arrow hitting solid wood.  That and the whole herd of deer bounded off.  As is standard protocol when bowhunting, we stayed where we were for several minutes, discussing the shot and deciding what our next move might be.  While waiting, we decided it would be worthwhile to move up and check out the site where the deer had been when I shot.  To further depress us, we found only a small piece of white hair (what we thought was belly hair), indicating a shot that was too low for a fast kill.  Surprising us though, was the fine blood mist on either side of the tracks of the deer as is jumped away, indicating a good lung shot.

After several more minutes of waiting, we slowly followed the tracks and eventually noticed the tracks lead behind a downed tree, where we noticed an ear sticking up.  Not knowing whether it was dead or just injured and resting, we split up and worked our way around the tree.  Much to our delight, there it was, dead, less than 50 yards from where I had shot it.  The ear was sticking up because the snow was so deep, it held its head up.  The feeling of finding that animal after all that we had been through and considering the shot was like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  To have shared the experience and had such great support made it indescribable.

Following our finding of the deer, we then identified that it was a small buck that had already lost his antlers.  We then field dressed him, which was quite difficult in the deep snow, and made our way out, using a harness to drag him through the deep snow.  Fortunately, we had ended up only about 100 yards from a road that we could drive on and pick him up.  We then went and celebrated with good food and good beer.  While we have talked about returning and trying our luck again in this area, we have not, and even if we do, I doubt I will ever have such great hunt as that, made all the better by sharing it with a great friend.  Thanks Jason!

Thanks to everyone for reading this far.  Hope you return for more!

TLaSS,
Joshua