The Canoe Buck
By
Patrick Murray

It was November 18th and as usual I was in my stand 45 minutes before legal shooting time. I like to get in early and let the area quiet down as I sit and think about what I might see when the sun comes up. At first light I had a nice doe, about 140 lbs walk in at 20 yards. I was going to take her but she decided to relieve herself at that location. I figured it she would smell up the area for me I could let her go. This doe then walked off and I also saw there was a smaller doe about 60 yards off but the two walked off together.

About 5 minutes after the 2 does left a button buck about 70 lbs walked in. I watched this little guy feeding and hanging around for almost 25 minutes. During this time he was as close as 10 feet below me. While watching him I saw him freeze and look off past me towards my right. I then saw a nice 8 point buck heading towards our direction. I would have taken this deer but he decided to stay just behind some brush and never stopped in any cleared areas. This 8 point was trotting along and was clearly on a mission. I was now glad I let the doe go after seeing how this buck was acting. Once out of sight the button buck settled back down and began to wander and feed again. This did not last long because I watched as the button buck turned from calm to nervous and alert in a split second. His ears pointed directly to my left and his tail went up. The little buck then started smelling the air and within 10 seconds decided to run off. I did not have a clue as to what had just happened but that feeling did not last long. I now could hear something crashing through the bushes back and to my left. I looked in the direction of the sound but tried to tell myself that no deer would make that much noise. A few seconds later I saw the source of the noise. This buck came busting through head out and trotting like the 8 point had. I instantly knew this was a really good buck. I began to turn and get into a good shooting position. This buck was heading right up a run which would lead him 10 yards directly in front of me. Unfortunately that was not the course he stayed on. When the run forked this buck turned to the left and away from me which was the same direction and run the 2 does had left on.

I knew I would only get one chance with this buck based on how fast he was moving. I saw a clearing and when he reached it I gave my best doe bleat. This buck slammed on the brakes and turned and looked for the source of the sound. With a clear shot I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. Instead of bang I heard pop. In the amount of time it takes to say "what the heck" the gun then went bang. I knew instantly it was a hang fire. I did not get to worked up because I saw the buck tuck his tail and heard him run off and I knew he had been hit. I reloaded and sat back down to think about what had caused the problem. Within 5 minutes I heard a shot from a direction that I knew my friend was hunting. I waited a little longer and then went to check the location of the shot. I was met with plenty of blood and hair. I noticed the hair was brown and there was some white hair. I figured I must have shot a little low but was still not worried. I called my friend who tagged his buck and left it where it lay to help me track. We were following the trail which looked good a first and then nothing but then it would start up again. We were both confused until we caught up to this deer, for the first of many times. This buck stood up no more than 80 yards from us, but giving us no shot and it began to stumble off. This was when I realized the shot had been bad, very bad. This buck had been struck in the back leg just above the knee.

This is where I can only hope the cause of the bad shot was the hang fire. I truly believe that the deer reacted to the pop and began to try and get away bringing his back leg to where his vitals use to be as he moved forward. I also admit I may have pulled the shot when the gun did not go off. I may have moved my point of aim but either way we knew we were in for a long track. We tracked this deer through some of the thickest, nastiness stuff that only a big buck can bust through. During the track I had the chance to see my friends deer because the trail led us right past it. We had been tracking for quite a while when I realized we were on some restricted land where hunting is not allowed. I know the person who controls this land so I called and explained the situation. With no hesitation I was told that not only was he giving me permission to track the deer as far as I had to but he was coming to help. this piece of property has one major problem, water. Right about the time we had lost blood track again I found the buck. He was now swimming across the water to a small island about 100 yards out. When the buck left the water he could barely stand and walked towards the middle to bed down where he must have felt safe.

I kept watch on the island while my friend walked back to his truck and then drove home to get his canoe. This is actually where the story ends in an ordinary way. Once on the island the deer was found lying down exhausted and was finally put down. This was when we both realized just how big this trophy was.

One thing I had to point out is the first shot was around 7:00 AM and the final shot was after 2:00 pm. The distance from first shot to last shot in a straight line is only about 3 miles however deer don't walk in a straight line so the true track was around 7 miles. In the end we were both tired, thirsty and hungry but it was definitely worth it. Morally I could never not give 110% to locate a wounded deer and I now have a hunting story that starts with " I had a hang fire" and ends with a canoe trip to claim the deer. Priceless.