Deer-Hunt-07 - Wisconsin Gun Deer Season

The Bender Deer-Hunt-07 started out perfect, My son Ty and I left on Friday morning November 16th at 6:00 am for our 4 hour drive to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We arrived in Manitowish Waters at 10:00 and headed for the woods to hang stands. It was a beautiful day, overcast, light winds with light snow falling. I hoped that tomorrow would be the same.

I hung three stands on the 100 acre piece of private property that my dad Bill and I hunt. Bill chose to sit in a ground blind looking down a power line right of way. I chose to sit a stand overlooking a brushy, hardwood flat that borders a large evergreen thicket.

Opening morning of Deer-Hunt-07 turned out just as nice as the day before. I climbed into my eastside stand and waited for daylight. At 7:00 am I noticed movement behind me to the west, two deer were moving from the west to the east, but they were pretty far away through the brush. I raised my 30-06 and found the first deer in the scope, it was a doe. We did not have a permit to shoot does in the unit we were in. I focused on the deer behind the doe, it was a small buck, maybe a six pointer. I wasn't going to be picky since the freezer was empty. I found somewhat of a opening and waited for the buck to enter it. When he hit the opening, I let off a round and both deer took off running to the east towards the hemlock thicket. The buck showed no signs of being hit. I climbed down from my Gorilla stand and went to check for blood, I was happy for fresh snow on the ground, it made tracking easier. I found where the deer took off running but found no blood. I followed the tracks all the way to the thicket but found no blood. I then made my way back to my treestand. I was not very happy, this was the third deer I missed this fall. As I climbed into my stand I set my rifle against the tree and started digging into my backpack for something and bumped my rifle. It fell 15 feet to the ground. This day was not getting any better. After I retrieved my gun and settled back into my stand, I shot my rifle to see if the scope was still on, and thankfully it was. When I sat back down, I looked to where the deer had traveled and I realized that I set my stand on the wrong side of the ravine. If I had it on the south side of the ravine I would have had a 50 yard shot instead of a 100 yard shot. As my dad, Bill Bender says it's "Murphy Law" "What can go wrong, will go wrong, and it usually does" This always applies to me when I go deer hunting. A while later I saw my dad headed my way to see if I needed help dragging out my deer.

After talking to my dad I deceided to move over to my stand on the west side, I needed a change of scenery. The stand overlooks a brushy, hardwood flat that has a balsam thicket to the north. I was sitting about 15 minutes when I glanced to my right and saw a deer moving through the balsams to the west. I saw it's dark colored antlers right away. I picked out a opening ahead of the deer and waited for it to come through. When it did I touched off a shot and watched the deer take off. I thought I heard him go down. I climbed down and headed over to where I shot at him. I found blood on the snow right away, even though there wasn't much blood I knew I hit him. I continued to track him and when I came through a thick hemlock tree, there he was. I gave a quick thanks to the lord and went to check out my deer. I hit him high in the lungs which is why I didn't get much of a blood trail.

The rest of the day of Deer-Hunt-07 I took my time with picture taking, field dressing, and dragging my buck out of the woods. I was very happy to have a nice fat 2-1/2 year old deer to put in the freezer.

I set up a ladder stand overlooking the westside hardwood flat so my dad could hunt over the flat throughout the whole hunting season. He is retired and lives in the area. He sat in the ladder the rest of the day but didn't see anymore deer. I sat in the east side stand and saw 3 more deer, all does.

On Sunday we slept in and went to church in the morning then headed out to get dad his buck in the afternoon. Bill sat in the ladderstand on the westside and my son Ty and I sat on the eastside in a ground blind. Dad didn't see any deer but Ty and I saw a doe and two fawns. Ty was excited to see the deer, he has three more years until he can hunt. It will be a long wait for him.

Well, the Platz family deer hunt for ’07 started out great. We hunt in Northern Wisconsin near Florence. My brother Jamie was on only his second deer hunt. He wanted to erase the memories of last year when everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. He couldn’t get a shot at a nice 8 pointer, dropped the clip out of the rifle after missing a spike buck, missed another buck, and then fogged up his scope on a doe the next day. This year would be different he said.

Jamie and I were sitting in a double ladder stand so I could film his hunt. I enjoy this alot. Jamie had hurt his back a few weeks earlier, but he slowly made the climb up the ladder stand. We were sitting about an hour when a doe followed closely by spike came over the hill to our left. The doe would bed down and the spike kept chasing her. She was definitely hot!! Just as they were coming into range I looked over to the left again and here comes a nice 8 point buck. He saw the spike buck, ran down the hill and chased him off!! Then he was all over that doe. The spike hung around in the background just in case. The 8 point buck and doe were only about 70 yards away but Jamie couldn’t get a shot because of the thick brush. Jamie had a hard time seeing the deer too, so he adjusted his hat since we were looking right into the sun and then stood up to see a little better. That buck finally caught the doe and she allowed him to breed her. An awesome and seldom seen sight. Then after about another 10 minutes the buck came into a little more open area. I told Jamie to take the shot whenever he had an opening. About a minute later the buck turned broadside and Jamie fired!! Both the doe and buck came tearing by us at about 50 yards. Suddenly the buck stumbled, got up and then fell again!! The doe kept going and we did not see the buck come out of the brush. I told Jamie “You nailed him!!” Jamie had to sit down then. He was shaking bad and needed to calm down. After about 20 minutes, we got down and walked over to where the buck had run through. We found blood immediately and I let Jamie follow the blood trail, his first. After going about 30 yards I saw the buck lying there but Jamie was still on the blood trail. All of a sudden he saw the buck at about 10 feet away!! He jumped back and said “There he is!!” I told him to go and poke the buck in the rear to make sure he was dead. After about 7 or 8 pokes I said “He’s dead”. Jamie was sooo excited!! His first deer and a nice 8 point buck to boot!! What a thrill!!

Plus the hunt is on video. I couldn’t have been happier either. I would have given up a 10 pointer of my own just to be in the tree with him on that special day and moment. I was so proud of him. He took his time, and made an off-hand shot right through the heart of that buck. Perfect!! We tagged, and dressed the buck, pulled it to our stand, and then I took up the vigil for a while. Jamie returned to the truck to rest his back. We saw about 5 more deer during the course of the day, but I could not get any shots.

Then about 4:10pm near the close of the day Jamie and I heard a rifle shot to the west where our brother Dave was sitting. The echo of the rifle shot was not even gone when we heard a loud “whoop!!” Then about 10 minutes later we heard more whooping!! Jamie didn’t think it was Dave because that’s not in his nature. I said “If he shot a big buck, then that is Dave!!” A short time later after hearing more whooping, we got back out to the truck and got a hold of Dave on the cell phone. He just said “Come down here, I have a buck down” Jamie and I drove down Dave’s fire lane and as soon as we parked, we heard more whooping!! We knew he had a good buck down and when we walked up we were not disappointed!!

Dave shot a dandy 10 pointer. His biggest buck to date. He shot a great big 225 dressed 120” 8 pointer a few years ago. This 10 point buck’s rack was bigger, but the body was not. Dave said he saw a deer coming, then saw antlers, got the scope on him and he turned broadside and Dave let him have it. It was a perfect high shoulder shot that dropped him in his tracks!! That’s why we had heard the “Whoop” before the echo was gone!! He only saw the buck for a total of about 15 seconds. I couldn’t have been more proud of Dave. What a great shot after sitting all day!!

You can imagine the thrill we brothers had loading 2 great bucks onto my truck!! What a great day!! When we got back to camp our Dad was sure proud!! Our Dad is 70 now and he was unable to get out that day due to sore knees, but he couldn’t have been happier for us!! Next year he’ll get the big one!!

Great ’07 hunt for the Platz boys!!

Randy