This hunt happened in the season of 2001. I had seen a few deer that year, but hadn' t had a shot at a big buck. When the last week of the season rolled around, the weather turned unseasonably warm, making things all the more difficult. My cousin was visiting from CT for his seasonal hunting trip. I had been scouting and hunting a new area which seemed to hold at least three big bucks. My priority was to get him in position to shoot a buck, since he has yet to shoot his first deer.
The problem was, I would found out where the deer were hanging out, and when I would send him into the area the next day they had already moved on. Now it was the last day and all of the snow had melted away, making tracking quite difficult.

He and I and his other cousin Stuart drove out to the area before first light, listening to " Thirty Point Buck" by Da Yoopers over and over. I joked around about how I was going to get " da turty pointer" that day. My cousin had discovered a spot he wanted to hunt the day before, so we dropped him off and drove down the road to the other side of the block of woods, about 2 miles away.
Stuart had already taken a 6 pointer the previous week, so he was along to hunt birds and assist us if we needed help dragging.

The conditions were far from perfect! The warm weather had kept getting warmer even though this was towards the end of November. I still hunted the opposite side of the same block of woods my cousin was hunting. I had seen loads of fresh sign here two days before, but now it seemed the deer had all vanished.

I walked back to the vehicle to find Stuart taking a nap, so I woke him up and had him drop me off at the end of the road. A grownover cut bordered the road, and at the lower edge of it was a brook lined with thick cedar and beaver ponds. My plan was to hunt towards a knob on the other side of the brook and find a good place to sit for the rest of the day. I had been eyeballing the spot all season, but had held off hunting it. I figured it would be a likely place for the deer to go to escape hunting pressure.

At this point (mid day) the day had warmed up so much that I was hunting in a T-shirt and jeans, with just my required blaze orange vest and hat. I hadn' t gone more than 50 yards when I started seeing numerous rubs, scrapes and droppings. I got excited, and started hunting even more slowly, paying close attention to my surroundings. I searched for a good place to sit where I could see more than 10 yards. I found a good spot in the corner of the cut where there was an intersection of well-used deer trails. I sat and called for a while, then waited absolutely motionless. About 30 minutes later I heard footsteps. My heart skipped a beat as I listened more closely. The footsteps grew closer, and sounded like a heavy animal, but I couldn' t yet see it since it was coming from just over a small rise. Then I saw the tips of tines, and a big buck stepped up over the rise 20 feet in front of me! I brought my gun up quickly as he turned his head to smell a bush, offering me a good quartering-to shot. I fired and the buck hit the ground instantly. Then I made what would turn out to be a huge mistake......I jacked another round into my gun. The buck jumped up and went crashing into the thick brush.....I followed him with my scope but never had another clear shot. I was also hesitant to shoot since I was sure my first shot had been good. I heard a loud crash and then silence. He was down! I waited about a half hour and then went to look for the blood trail. I searched the area where he had been when I shot and found no blood at all......confused, I did a quick sweep of the area, and finding nothing I went back to get help.

I came back about an hour later with the other two, and we searched until dark without even finding a speck of blood. I was pretty dissapointed at this point, but was still certain that the deer was dead. I called the game warden that night and explained the situation, and he said we could go look for the deer the next day as long as we didn' t bring guns since the season was over and it was also a Sunday.

The next day I came back with two of my hunting buddies and we searched all day long, using a " grid" type search pattern to cover as much of the area as possible. It was just about dark when one of my partners, who had been sitting on a log resting, yelled " I found it!!" I ran over to where he was and there was my buck, laying in a thicket and completely covered over by the low boughs of a spruce. It was a nice 8 pointer. We dressed him out and drug it to the vehicle, then drove to the tagging station. The buck dressed out at 205 pounds....not bad for late in the season! Later when we butchered the deer we found out why there had been no blood trail - The bullet had hit high up, blowing out the lungs and traveling diagonally through the body until lodging in the right rear hindquarter. A high entrance point and no exit wound left no blood, even where the deer laid down to expire.

I called the warden and told him I had found my buck.....he said to wait at the store until he called me back. 45 minutes later he had still not called, so we left and took the deer to a walk in cooler. A friend had offered to let me hang the deer there since the weather had been so warm.
That night the warden called me at home and asked why I hadn' t waited at the store. I told him I had and that he never called back. He went on to say that he needed to see the deer and I was supposed to wait at the store for him to show up. He went on and on about how he couldn' t know if I had shot the deer during the season or after. I said " I called you the night after I had shot it and you said it was no problem and that you wouldn' t need to see the deer, that I should just call and let you know if I found it" . He gave me a big speech, but finally let it go. It was upsetting that I had done the right thing by calling him in the first place, and now he was giving me a hard time over it. I felt like I was being accused of poaching.

It was a good learning experience for me. I learned that if a deer goes down right in front of you, stay still and don' t make a noise. If I had never jacked in another round the deer never would have left my sight. Also, if you can' t find a blood trail but you think you made a good shot, don' t give up! Sometimes following your gut instinct will pay off.