Deer Camp 2008

Now that the leaves have all fallen and the cold winter has arrived, you knew the firearm deer season couldn't be far off. Last weekend was our annual getaway with the guys up north in Bitely chasing the great whitetail deer. A typical deer camp involves drinking, eating, shooting, laughing, drinking, hunting, eating, and drinking. This year was no exception. All the traditions were there. We took a trip to Johnny's in Custer for live music, drinking, and dancing. We had a good time watching some football. But most of all, we hunted. This year was a big question mark with the baiting ban in the lower peninsula. Heidi's brother Scott had just bagged a doe from his tree stand. I bow hunted the night before the opener and saw two doe but couldn't get them to come in close enough for the shot.

Saturday was the opening day of gun season. We'd gone out the day before and setup our ground blinds, made shooting lanes, and prepared for the great hunt. That night, we had a bonfire, salmon on the grill, a few drinks, and played guitars around the fire. Fittingly, though I didn't know it at the time, we ended the night with a rendition of Fred Bear on the acoustic guitar. "Let's go huntin' baby..."

The opening day forecast was nasty: snow and rain all day. The reality was it turned out to be a nice opening day for hunting. It was a bit windy but no rain and very little snow. It started out as most hunts in Bitely do, no deer. But then it happened. As I was sitting in my doghouse blind scanning the horizon, the BIGGEST buck I've ever seen in my life appeared out of nowhere. This thing looked like the king of the woods walking wherever he wanted. He wasn't concerned about much of his surroundings. He had his head held high and his rack looked like a bright crown. When I saw him, I said under my breath "HOLY $#!^". Brought my gun up and found him in the scope. He was walking but at a pretty good clip. I followed him with my crosshairs hoping for an opening but none came. I new I didn't have much time so I looked ahead of him, found a clear shooting lane, put the scope on it, and waited for him to walk into it. About three long seconds later, he did. I squeezed off the round and down he went in a giant heap. I racked another shell and grabbed my cell phone to call Scott who was only a few hundred yards away. As I did, the beast jumped up and ran back toward where he came from. I dropped the phone, raised my gun, and as I found him in the scope, he dropped again for good. At this point, I knew the deer was big but I hadn't had a chance to count points. I called, Scott answered. "Was that you?", he said. I replied, "Dude, I just shot the biggest &$*%#! buck I've ever seen in my life!" With that, Scott ran (not walked) all the way to my stand to check it out. We walked out to where I saw him drop the first time and found no blood. Looking over toward where the buck headed, he'd made it about 15-20 yards before finally dropping. And it's a good thing too because there was no blood to be found. Turns out the shot (about a 70-80 yarder taken at 9:58am) exploded both lungs and went right through him. All bleeding, it seems was internal. Turns out this buck was a big 8-point with a nice bright, high rack. Definitely not the type of deer we're accustomed to seeing in Bitely. Here are some shots of my buck of a lifetime. It is now at the taxidermist for a shoulder mount that's gonna look really nice in the cabin. I can't wait to get it back!


Two days and about three inches of snow later, my buddy Dave sat in the exact same stand and had a nice 7-pointer eating about 60 yards out from him. Having never shot a deer before, Dave was understandably nervous and fighting off some heavy breathing. At one point, he put his gun down, (P.S. Dave, don't EVER put your gun down when there's a buck standing in front of you!!!!!!) got his breathing under control and again took aim. He squeezed the trigger at 8:20am and dropped his first deer ever. A second BIG deer for the area we were hunting and his first ever. Here are some shots of Dave's deer.


Overall, it was a fun camp. And it didn't hurt that we had a little success this year. Within one week, we took three deer from the small area we hunted. I'd imagine it will be quite a few years before that will ever happen again.