I’ve been hunting for 20 years now; everywhere from the Thumb to the U.P. It’s defiantly a passion. After losing my lease in the Thumb this year I decided to give my Uncle Joe a call, he lives in Washtenaw Co. and I know a lot of nice deer have come from the southern counties, not to mention just spending a few days with him is well worth the trip. After talking to him I discovered no one has hunted his property in years. His property consists of mainly marsh and being a big duck hunter I know deer like the marsh as well. So I went down to his place the first week of November to do a little bowhunting. After being there 20 minutes in the afternoon scouting for a stand location I saw a 10-point chasing a doe.
I ran back to the truck and grabbed my stand and stuck it in a tree at a major intersection of trails, 45 minutes I shot a nice 5-point at 5 yards. That evening I saw seven different bucks chasing does. I knew the area was alive. After two days of hunting it was unfortunately time to go home. I didn’t get a chance to go out opening weekend, which was fine by me. I’m more of a bowhunter anyway, but I had the next Friday off work. I decided to head down early that morning.
I left home at 3:30 a.m. to get there by 5:30 a.m. I still had to set a stand in the dark. I crept through the marsh and set my stand in a tree I had used during bow season. As dawn broke I could see deer starting to move. Around 8:00 the sun began to rise, and unfortunately my stand location faced the sun, just as I was thinking to myself “it’s gonna be impossible to see through the scope with the sun”, a doe came out at about 100 yards. I watched her slip into the cattails and right behind her was a buck with antlers everywhere and cattails and weeds hanging off them! I knew he was a good one, so I took a deep breath and told myself to “wait for the right shot.”
The doe then began to quarter away and I knew the buck was committed. He turned broadside at about 80 yards. I stood up to get over a branch and fought to get him in the scope with the sun, I fired and he stood still. I felt my heart sink, I fired again, nothing, third shot, nothing, fourth shot, he twitched, and the last shot he fell. I never got out of a stand quicker in my life. I put three more rounds in the gun and flew through the cattails when I got to the small clearing a 4-point was standing there, I knew he was bigger than that, I looked left and there he was. All I could see was one side of his rack; the other side was buried in the weeds. Final count was 16 points and a few stickers at his bases. I called my uncle at work and I think he thought I was having a heart attack, I was so wound up. He came home and brought my cousin with him to help move the beast. The deer was shot twice one shot severed his heart and the final shot hit him in the neck. My taxidermist scored the 16-point at 187 3/8 with a 21 inch inside spread and it weighed over 180 pounds.
