Childhood dream comes to fruition

I started hunting and specifically bow hunting in September of 1999, I remember my brother being a freshman in college and coming home on the weekends to take me to our neighbors land and I sat in the same stand every weekend hoping for that trophy buck with my bow I was lucky enough to kill a few nice 120 class bucks in the first  years of my hunting, but I always felt I needed that 140 class or better buck to solidify myself as a legitimate trophy archer and getting one with a gun won't suffice since any knucklhead can line up crosshairs and pull the trigger, 13 seasons later not much has changed really; I have a few more than just one stand-site to choose from now to say the least, but other than that not much has changed really I still focus on the little details of scent control and not burning stands out before the rut, trimming shooting lanes, putting in water holes in the summer so as not to disturb deer too close to season, knocking on doors and lending a hand to any landowner gracious enough to let my family and I hunt just hoping it would pay off in a big way. October 26^th at 7:30 in the morning it finally did! Jeff and I were going to hunt a little in the morning before he had to get off to work and I had to load up my car and take off for a South Dakota pheasant hunt with my little cousins and Honey. This buck decided to make things interesting to say the least, he steps out at about 33 yards facing directly away from me and dead downwind and by the time I saw him he had 6 feet to go to be in thick brush and gone for good, grunting was not turning him and I was at full draw and not about to take a “texas heart shot” at such a trophy animal, in desperation I tried a “snort weeze” that I had seen on hunting shows that peaked his interest just enough to get him to turn slightly and expose that shoulder I settled the thirty yard pin and let the arrow fly and heard the thud of an arrow hitting bone hard, he trotted 20 yards and slowly walked away, I watched for 5 minutes hoping he would fall and coming to the realization that I clearly didn’t make that spectacular of a shot I figured by how hurt he was he would be recovered, but to make an animal suffer slowly is always a bitter feeling. Dustin, Jesse, Jeff and I came back 4 hours later only to bump him out of his bed and find out he still wasn’t quite dead, that was a low feeling and I realized in the future I need to be more patient when tracking them and give them more time to expire in a marginal shot situation, but this buck may be lost due to my stupidity! The problem now was we were supposed to be leaving for a 12 hour drive to our pheasant hunting property. Dustin assured me he would track down my buck the next morning and Dennis said he would help I knew I had the two best trackers you could find on the job, but that was still hard to leave not knowing for sure if he would be recovered, I had other family members and good friends gracious enough to offer to help those guys track him down and by 9am the next morning Dustin sent a text saying they had found him. Gross scored as a 9pt 145 3/8” and netted unofficially 138 2/8ths I got a picture of a nice 9pt I passed on 2 years ago a hundred yards from where I shot this buck,while I don't believe mine is that deer since that buck would be much bigger by now it sure looks like they share the same genetics with the G4's on the left side.It was extremely gratifying to finally get a trophy buck with the bow, though I found out its more about the memories of the hunt and tracking with family and friends that means more than the inches of bone on the deer’s head; my business partner always reminds me “you get what you earn in life” and I have had a lot of close friends and family that have seen my dedication to this sport tell me if there is anyone out there that deserves a great buck its me I have paid my dues. I don’t know about all that, but I do hope they start coming a little more often than once every thirteen years now. This shoulder mount will be hanging up at my buddy Derek Lenz’ house once I get it back from the taxidermy, he told me he wants a couple nice bucks hanging in his house and I told him I am just the man for the job and would be honored to have my deer on display in his home even though he mostly just has beautiful women over all the time that probably don’t appreciate big bucks, oh well it will just give me another excuse to go visit him, for those of you that don’t know Derek’s story check out this link:   http://www.flowrestling.org/video/505598-Opportunities

I cannot say thanks enough to my family, friends and the amazing people that are out there fighting for this country; being able to enjoy the outdoors and share it with others, that’s a helluva “opportunity”!

Nick