Deer In Memory of My Dad

wbpdeer

wbpdeer

Well-Known Member
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Friday was Veteran's Day. My father, like many southern boys, lied about his age to get into the service in World War II. He served in the Navy.

Deer season has been slow for the most part. I am on a Kentucky Lease and no deer have been harvested yet, until Veteran's Day.

I worked in Hawkins County, TN on Election Day for a voting machine company as election day support. I served 25 years in the election business with the last ten being in the state election office.

So I was very weary from the travel and extremely long Tuesday. I traveled on Wednesday and rested all day on Thursday.

I got up at 4 AM Friday morning and traveled to Butler County, KY but arrived too late. Daylight had already occurred. I got in the stand and was hopeful for the last day of bow season. I had all of my gun season stuff with me on the trip.

Long story short - the hunting gods gave me a chance. At 7:20 AM I saw a deer in a ravine about 70 yards west of my stand. Within 3 or 4 seconds, I knew it was a racked buck.

His nose on the ground. I attempted to call him with a grunt call - but no luck.

He worked away from up a finger to the west. Again I attempted to call him. Finally after about 3 minutes I hung my cross bow back on the bow hanger.

I believed he had committed to another ridge. About 2 or 3 minutes later I heard him. I quickly determined he was coming onto my finger. He was just walking along slowly.

He gave me a nice 26 yard broadside shot. It was a step angle. My bolt caught him in the spine and exited the lung on the opposite side.

His reaction was to jump roll over downhill with four legs in the air. He was down. I quickly got my cross bow on the pull rope with my hip quiver and got down from the 20 foot hang on.

By the time I got down to him, he was almost done. I put a second arrow in the boiler room. The exit hole on the first bolt and the entry hole on the 2nd bolt were slightly over an inch apart.

My son and our friend later helped me get the deer out.

He was a good 9 pointer. I am pleased with this buck.

My son took the photo below.

My dad gave me the chance to hunt when I was 12 years old. In 1965 if you saw a deer in Middle TN, it was big news. I have to say deer hunting has brought me more joy than sports has. I was an active athlete when I was younger. But deer hunting is some I have enjoyed for 41 years with my dad (lost him in '93), my son, my grandson and my granddaughter.
Thank you dad . This deer is in your memory.

View attachment 4499
 
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Great deer;I bet your Dad is smiling. Those of us that learned hunting from our Dads are very lucky; We enjoyed the best in life.. Those of us that are Dads can only hope to pass on to our children the caring for the deer and their world our Dads gave to us.

My Dad also had exaggerated his age to get into the battle.
 
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Wayne,

Congratulations. I'm very happy for you. Your photo was sideways so I attempted to edit it but I'm not sure if I did it right.
 
cutman said:
Wayne,

Congratulations. I'm very happy for you. Your photo was sideways so I attempted to edit it but I'm not sure if I did it right.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cutman. I know you helped it. Lately, I have experienced this issue.

Some detail that escapes me. Thanks for the help.
 
Happy for you, Wayne. Great deer and story. Sometimes i have to wonder if ole dad isnt pulling strings for me down here. Haha.
 
Thanks everyone. I came home today at lunch and there was not a shot fired by six good hunters today on that lease.

We didn't put out corn this year and it hurt us. Two of the guys on our lease purchased a cabin that the bank had and we remodeled it all year long. I worked every day we laid hardwood floor.

My dad was a great hunter. I may post some of his photos on here. He never was exposed to bowhunting. In his day it was all recurves.

He raised bird dogs - both setters and pointers. I loved to eat quail - so the deal was - he killed them, I cleaned them and mom cooked them. I hated shooting pen raised birds over young pups getting trained. Pen birds can be weak flyers and if a young dog breaks point I was on the gun with reasonable caution.

I always knew my hunting genes were developed by a dedicated outdoorsman. I have done good in my hunting but my son is the best in the bloodline. He has the knack to pick the right tree for bowhunting. I have my pride but he sees and understands the where and why. I don't resist his choices - I just pick his brain. The stand I killed this 9 pointer out of was picked as a November stand by Jackson. It has produced two bucks - both November bucks.

We have taken 4 deer off that lease - and this buck is the smallest. The best buck was a 153 inch that is shown on this forum under the thread "Moments We Live For". Three of the four kills have been with a bow. We love the challenge of stick and string.

If you have never watched "Moments We Live For" go watch it. The game camera was on video and the buck and arrow show up together on film within 3 seconds of each other.

It all started with my dad. Thank you dad.
 
Thank Lak and George. The deer was big enough to suit me. I have eaten plenty of tags over the years. I hunted hard enough this year and moved around the lease some. Our shooter buck sightings for all hunters has been low. Why? Acorns are everywhere!

I hunted that stand for 5 different sets and only had one zero. I want to enjoy deer hunting and harvesting this buck was fun. 'Nuff said in my book. ;)
 
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ALwoodsman said:
Great story and a great buck. Congrats!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Thanks for you kind words. I love the whitetail deer and chasing them with a bow. It is still fun to lay eyes on a deer in woods and try to get them close enough. It is a challenge to kill a nice buck - sometimes the hunting Gods reward our efforts.
 
Wayne, I read your thread a couple days ago on your walk in cooler that you're building. I started to think that you don't even hunt deer. I mean how could you with so many tree projects going and now the walk in cooler? I thought you were Wayne the habitat guy that's just in it for the love of growing things. Now I see Wayne the hunter and read his story too. You're humble as you praise your son but you're leaving some big boot tracks for him to fill. That's a life lived well !
Also that's a great photo of your deer. One for the desk and one for the wall. Nice job!
 
Thanks for the feel good story Wayne - I think most of us are hunters because of our Dads. Beauty of a buck too - congrats!
 
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