Anybody who has bow hunted for years knows that bowhunting has its highs and lows. The following is a perfect example.
On November 17, I was sitting in a ladder stand on a ridge behind my cabin in Vilas County. As the sun was setting, I had a deer walk up the trail behind my stand. Once past me, I could see the deer was a nice buck. High. When the buck turned what I thought was broadside, I bleated to stop him and pulled the trigger on my crossbow. I heard the hit and felt good about the shot. Higher.
Once I got down from my stand and found my bolt (thanks to the lighted nock), my spirits sank. Close scrutiny of the bolt indicated a low and less than ideal hit. Low. I snuck out of the woods and summoned a friend who is not afflicted with color blindness like me to meet me in the morning to try and track the buck.
After more than a half hour of searching, my friend Gary Ridderbusch notified me that he had found blood. High. Three hours and three hundred yards later, I told Gary “Thanks” and told him I was pretty sure that I didn’t have a fatal hit. Low. I went home and got my dog Mabel planning to do a few loops in the direction the buck was headed, hoping she would get a whiff of a dead deer. Nothing. Hopes drop to rock bottom.
Trying to salvage something from the morning, I drove out into the Nicolet National forest to check out a potential rifle hunting spot. It was then that I realized that I’d lost my phone during my grid search. How could this morning get any worse!?
I drove back to my cabin and noticed that my neighbor Mark Bugni was at home for lunch. I went over and explained my predicament wondering if he could call my phone to help me locate it. When I told him about the buck, he said “My dog is a bloodhound; let’s go look for your deer.” (To be clear, Louie is a Golden Doodle, not a bloodhound.)
Nonetheless, 20 minutes later after crossing a state highway, running a woods edge, and crossing yet another road, Mark yelled back to me that “I’ve got pretty good blood here.” I caught up to him and 40 yards later, there was my buck! Sky high!
Oh, and retracing my steps I found my phone where it had fallen out of my sweatshirt pouch while climbing over a log. Double sky high!!
For the record, I bought my neighbor a bottle of medicinal rum and his dog a nice steak for their efforts. A good dog really is a man’s best friend! Thank you, Louie!!
