.. Swamp Buck
By
Steve (Buckee)
and Diana Kane
...November
02, 2002
...My son arrived yesterday morning for a
four day hunt with me, so please, all my fellow bowhunting friends, forgive
me for picking up my shotgun .....LOL
...Since
my son Troy is not into bow hunting yet, I cannot take him into my bowhunting
spots where my stands are hung. Instead we opted to go down to the farm
where I got my nice eight pointer last year.
...My son wanted to go down "the Cut" since
he has gotten a few nice deer there in the past. We were late getting
started so I thought I would go for a long still hunt down over the bank
at the back of the property, into a series of swamps (which are all dried
up right now, due to no rain).
...We got there at 8:30am. Troy took off
for the cut and I checked the wind to see which direction I would be approaching
my still hunting area from. The breeze was from the north, so I headed
across the back field to drop down into the south end of the swamp and
work my way north. It was -5C with heavy frost making the leaves on the
ground were frosty and very crisp. I decided early that if I was going
to see anything at all, I would have to still hunt extra slow.
...I dropped down into the swamp after about
1/2 hour had gone by and was really taking it slow. Two or three slow
steps and then stop and listen. Every 25 or 30 yards I'd give out a series
of 5,6 or 7, low short grunts to imitate the bucks this time of the year.
I also threw in a few doe-in-heat can calls or a doe call from my woodswise
call every now and then.
...About 100 yrds into my still hunt, after
I had dropped down behind the swamps, on an old skid (now a bear) trail,
I came upon a doe at 15 yards. She imediatly stood up to see what was
coming. I felt good about getting that close, with all the crunchy leaves,
and being able to bust her before she busted me.
...She took off but stopped about 70 yards
into the swamp and blew at me a few times, to which I replied with a series
of buck grunts. I waited untill she settled down and resumed my still
hunt, still grunting and doe calling every 25 or 30 yrds. Every now and
then the skid trail dips down and goes through some narrow swampy spots
and then back up on higher ground. It took me 1 1/2 hours to cover 400
yards while following the skid trail.
..
Steve Kane with the the nicest Vancouver Island Blacktail he
has "ever seen, let alone taken".
...I
was determined to maintain my slow, methodical, quiet steps. I had just
walked through one of the low swampy spots and was slowly coming up the
other side, two steps and stop....three steps and stop. I continualy stopped
and listening as I working my way up from the swamp dip. I let out a series
of grunts (five or six, low, short, close together grunts) and two can
calls at the end. Then I heard something on the other side of the brambles
that lined the trail, ....crunch (three or four second pause) crunch ..............crunch
............crunch..........crunch. I thought it was a bear approaching
because of the slowness of the footsteps.
...Then
I saw it ........10 yards ahead .....just about to step into the clear
.....the biggest Blacktail buck II have ever seen on any of the farms
I hunt . I had no time to size him up ...it was now or never, before he
stepped into the clear and busted me at 10 yrds. I pulled up with my 12
gauge shotgun, loaded with 3" magnum,000-buck shot, picked a spot through
the brambles, waited for him to take one more step and fired.
...The hard part was going to be getting this brute out of the
swamp and up the 100 yard high embankment. I called my neighbor on my
cell phone and asked him to come and give me a hand with my monster Blacktail.
I told him where Troy (my son) would be sitting and asked him to pick
him up on the way. I managed to get the buck dressed out and dragged it
200 yards through four swamps and up over all the higher ground to the
embankment, before my son and my neighbour arrived.
...It then took us 2 1/2 hours to get him
up the remaining 100 yards of steep embankment, three or four feet at
a time. We then dragged him through another 100 yards of fairly open bush
and then another 400 yards to the pond where my truck was parked.
I was thrashed, but beaming
from ear to ear. BEST BLACKTAIL BUCK EVER. Almost a perfect 10 pointer
with a typical mulie type rack (rare for these parts) They don't get much
bigger than this here !!!
...I
have no more tags left, so now I'll be concentrating on getting my son,
my buddy Ken, and friend Wilf, lined up on some deer.
