Tall Tales - Whitetail Deer Hunting

Ten Point Down, by Mike Wock

On Friday December 10, 2010 at 10:30AM I arrived at my buddy Bob's house. Neither of us had filled our deer tags yet so we decided to do some still-hunting. I uncased my camera and draped the strap around my neck. I unzipped my gun case, grabbed my rifle, loaded it and off we went. The wind was barely noticeable. The six inches of snow on the ground muffled almost all noise. We still-hunted slowly, always looking ahead for anything that might resemble a deer or deer body parts. We hadn't gone far before we spotted a horizontal outline in the distance. Could that be a deer?

We slowed our pace to a crawl, diligently watching the horizontal outline in the distance. It did not move. We inched ahead very cautiously and slowly.

Using my gun scope I identified the object as a deer, matter of fact it was a buck. He was bedded down, facing away from where we stood. We inched forward...

The buck did not move. We crept forward silently. The wind was favorable, blowing right into our faces.

We were standing within 25 yards of a handsome ten point buck. He was still unaware that we were there. I could see his head bobbing slightly as he drew breaths of air. He appeared to be pre-occupied or something.

Being stealthy as hungry mountain lions, we were able to sneak within 15 yards of the buck. He was still unaware that we were nearby. I raised my gun, took aim for his neck and squeezed the trigger.

Upon bullet impact, the buck more or less just tipped over on his side. We waited for about five minutes until his tail stopped twitching then we went up to admire and claim our prize.

Here is Corey and Bob poised with the ten point buck.

The total elapsed time of this hunt was eleven minutes. All of the above is true... Now here's the rest of the story.

On Thursday evening December 9, Bob and his wife Karen were watching their wildlife feeder from their dining room window. The feeder is located about 30 yards from the house. Almost magically a ten point buck appeared at the feeder. Karen noticed that there was something wrong with the deer. Bob saw what he thought were intestines...

The ten point buck ate corn at the feeder for fourteen minutes then slowly ambled off into the woods. Bob waited for 1/2 hour then investigated. He found blood and stomach matter in the snow. Seemingly the buck had been shot low in the abdomen.

Bob followed the buck's hoof prints which led to more blood sign and stomach matter. At this point in time it was nearly dark so Bob decided to wait until the next day (Friday) to resume the search.

Friday morning Bob resumed the search in his back yard. Within 15 minutes the buck startled him when he kicked around in the underbrush. Bob surmised that the buck was fatally injured because he did not bolt off. Bob retreated to the house and called the MN Dept. of Natural Resources.

After Alex Gutierrez a Conservation Officer got the facts, he approved of dispatching the buck. He issued Bob a deer possession ticket so that the meat and rack would not go to waste. While skinning the buck it was evident that the buck would not have lived much longer. He had lost a guesstimated 30-40 pounds and did not have an ounce of fat anywhere--definitely not a good thing heading into a Minnesota winter.