On December 9th, my cousin Ken had a pretty awesome morning in the woods. Ken had planned to take the day off from work knowing a drop in temperatures was just what was needed to get the deer moving.

By 6:00 am Ken was in the cold dark woods and just getting settled in the stand. As day began to break, Ken waited in anticipation for the deer to begin moving. As the first hour passed Ken was beginning to wonder if he picked the right spot to hunt that morning.



With nothing happening, Ken decided to try calling and sounded off a few soft grunts. Then at 8:15 am Ken finally caught movement as two does began working their way in from behind. As the lead doe stepped into a clearing at 20 yards Ken sent the arrow on its way and watched as it blew through the deer and stuck in the ground. The doe took off on a quick 40 yard dash before collapsing.

Ken was pretty pumped up (probably did a fist pump in the stand) and then caught movement not more than 20 minutes later as a buck worked his way down the mountain towards Ken's stand. As the deer got closer Ken had to reposition himself in the stand. Now at just 15 yards and closing Ken would have only a few seconds to draw back and shoot the buck. At 9 yards Ken came to full draw and grunted to stop the deer. Caught in the moment, Ken had pulled the shot and the hit was far back.

Ken watched as the deer bedded down 65 yards away. Over the next half hour the deer got up and bedded down twice, ending up at 90 yards. Once Ken could no longer see the buck, he climbed down and began to stalk the wounded buck.

Crawling on hands and knees through dirt, mud and rocks Ken slowly made his way closer to where he had last seen the buck. When he got to a point where he thought the buck would be below him, Ken started heading back downhill and spotted the buck 55 yards away bedded against a stone wall.

It took another 25 minutes for Ken to close the distance to 20 yards. Ken's heart was pounding as he made his way to a large boulder to hide behind for the shot. Taking a moment to calm down and relax, Ken took a deep breath and then drew back on the wounded buck. Picking a spot and settling the pin, Ken made sure the shot would count and sent the arrow into the boiler room putting the buck down fast.


Congrats to Ken on two awesome deer and sticking it out through the ups and downs. Ken did what all hunters should do when they mortally wound an animal - he did everything in his power to make sure he put that deer down as fast as possible, even if it meant crawling through mud to get there.