October started out to be another exciting hunting season for me. As in the past, looking forward to getting in the woods and being with nature is the best time of my life. With my job, working in an Archery Pro Shop, it, at times, is very hard to get out and scout and, believe it or not, get ready for the deer hunting season. When the opening day came this year, I was down with a cold and a cough. I was not up to par for hunting much. I went out on the opener, but slept much of the time and had a cough. Days after that opener I did not hunt due to my cold.

On October 8th, still sick, not ready at all for hunting, my wife called me at work to see if I was going to go hunting. I told her no, I was coughing too much and did not feel good at all. She insisted that I go, and maybe do some scouting. After talking to her I thought she was right, I needed to find a new area to hunt and could get ready for my next full day off to hunt.

I busted out of work at 5:05pm, heading down the road to go scouting, with no intentions of shooting any deer. I knew the area well but not this one area to the north of my normal hunting spot. As I pulled down the road on the state land where I hunt a car was parked in my two year old parking spot. The thoughts went through my mind of him shooting a buck off the spot I’ve hunted, and screwing it up for me, I moved on. I drove just another 1/8 of a mile and pulled into another spot, ready to scout.

The area I found has lots of big oaks and pine on high spots and thick low areas for deer to hide in. I jumped out of the car with my work boots on and work cloths and went into the woods. After looking around I found a tree to use, not a good one but at 5:30 and prime time is about to start, I had to hurry and get my gear. I went back to the car, put on my hunting suit and left the Sent Lock suit behind. No time for the rubber boots, have to get hunting. I grabbed my Ol’ Man climber, a saw to cut limbs, and my bow and found that I forgot to put the quiver block on my bow. So off I went into the woods with the tree stand on my back, my Martin Phantom in one hand and the quiver in the other.

I found the tree again and put the climbing tree stand on, hooked up my bow to my rope and started up the tree. It was a Red Pine with lots of dead branches to be cut. So, I moved up little by little, cutting branches breathing in the cool autumn air coughing my head off. I stopped moving up the tree only 18-20 feet to hunt. I was set up to shoot to the west, into the wind. Sweat was running down the back of my neck. I was coughing hard and feeling like I should be in bed, not in a tree stand. I grabbed the rope and pulled my Martin bow up to me and hung it on a cut off branch and my quiver on another branch. I nocked an arrow and sat back to cool down and stop coughing….ha ha. I look at my watch, it was 6:25 and I sat back thinking, I’m about as ready to hunt tonight as the man in the moon. My scent must be bad, forgot my Scent Shield, no rubber boots, no Scent Lock suit, coughing bad, why am I even here. A squirrel was playing behind me and birds moving in the trees, I was in the woods what could be better, but not like this. I looked at my watch at 6:45 thinking why am I here, I will just sit here a little longer and cool down some more and go home to return on my next day off.
I had my head down coughing feeling disappointed that I even came hunting, when I heard another squirrel to the east of me. I looked up and that was no squirrel, it was a Buck moving my way feeding on the acorns. The wind was from the west and he was to my northeast heading south. I grabbed my bow, went to turn on the lighted sight and the battery was dead. More bad luck. I turned in my stand to get the shot to my right. The buck was now about 25 yards away and getting closer, I pulled the bow back and settled in with the sight between two trees in hopes that the buck would walk there, and he did. He slowed down to eat and I shot, the arrow was on its way, the buck dropped a little to run, and the arrow found its mark. The buck ran back the way he came from on a dead run.

I sent my Martin bow and quiver down with my rope before the climb down. My legs were shaking like jackhammers as I worked my Ol’ Man climber down the tree. At the point of impact I found good red blood and it looked like an easy track. After taking all my equipment to the car, I drove down the road and left a note for my hunting buddy Harvey to call me on the cell phone when he gets to his truck.

I went back to first blood and it was an easy track for me, the deer only went about 80 yards to his quick death. I didn’t know how big he was, just that it was a nice buck. There he was behind a big tree, I walked around the tree to see that I shot an 8 pointer with 14” inside spread and scored 96 3/8” green. After field dressing him my hunting buddy called me by cell phone and came to help me drag him and put him on my car.

On this day I did not plan to shoot anything, let alone a nice Michigan 8 pointer, with all the things I did wrong who would of thought. Yes it does pay to do things right, but “Lady Luck” still plays a big part of hunting, or fishing. Just remember, “If it were not for bad luck, we would no luck at all.
Good Hunting and have fun.