Father & Son Pull Off Remarkable Feat

This is not your average “opening day” deer story.

The journey began in 1999 in the swamps of Rush Lake, and honestly, well before I ever stepped on to those hallowed grounds. I was in 8th grade, and went out Saturday of the ‘99 Wisconsin bow opener just to sit and observe in a tree not far from where my dad was hunting. I don’t recall if we saw anything, but I’ll never forget walking the access trail back out to the main trail to meet my grandpa.

Before Dad and I could get to the intersection, Grandpa was there to meet us, and was kind of frantically explaining how he had shot a “decent 10,” or so he had thought. Later, as we were tracking, almost immediately, my dad found a piece of the deer’s stomach and instantly stopped the trailing right then and there for the night. We drove the long hour home and settled in for a restless night, and an early morning. I didn’t get the “OK” from Mom to miss Sunday school (the only time ever) until about 9 p.m. I was pumped! 

We got back out to the blood trail around 7:30 a.m. It was going to be a “muggy one” per Grandpa so we wanted to find this deer ASAP. Drops turned to pin drops through tiny grass and cattails. My dad morphed into a bloodhound that morning, I could have swore, and eventually we found a few spots where there was fresh blood in some beds. We turned a corner around some red dogwood, and there he was, facing us! We all were caught off guard and took a second to analyze the moment. My dad approached slowly, and once we realized the buck had expired, the cheers and hugs started flowing. 

This was the biggest buck of my grandfather’s hunting career, and biggest ever with his compound. Fifteen scoreable points, field dressed at 215 pounds, and a NET score of 149. The biggest buck anyone had ever harvested in our family at that time. That was until Saturday of the 2024 Wisconsin bow opener. … 

2020 was the final straw. Fifteen years prior, after moving on from a lifetime of chasing giant bucks around Rush Lake near Ripon, Wisconsin, Mom and Dad decided to trade in their wet waders for tennis shoes and got to high ground. They moved out to a log cabin in Waushara County on 40 acres. As made famous by the father of conservation Adlo Leopold, the dry, central sand region of Wisconsin was completely opposite from the marshes we were used to hunting. It took until 2020 before we got sick of not having the success we were used to at Rush Lake (and to finally wise-up that we couldn’t hunt the same way!). 

During the COVID-19 pandemic (because gas was cheap and what else could we do with our time?!), and basically every day since, we have obsessed over improving our property, micromanaging every decision. We added doe bedding, buck bedding, better access trails, screening, better plots, better plot rotations, better blinds, mock scrapes, water tanks, and whatever else! It’s been a blast, and sometimes the prep is some of the most fun. In 2021 our cousin tagged a really nice 8 on the Monday after the gun season opener. Things seemed to be trending in the right direction, and we were seeing more bucks, and deer in general, than ever. 

2023 we had our best season of things coming together … and nobody harvested a mature buck. Misses and missed opportunities occurred throughout, what became, a frustrating season, and minor tweaks still needed to be made if anyone was going to get one of the biggest bucks in the neighborhood and on the ground in 2024. 

When the weatherman says it’s going to be almost 90 degrees for the next couple weeks and you are a week from deer season, that usually isn’t a reason to be optimistic. Usually …

Five days prior to the ‘24 opener, trail cameras confirmed one of the biggest bucks around was using “Dad’s tank” to get a drink during daylight hours. (“Dad’s tank” is a 20-gallon hard rubber cattle tank that has a garden hose attached to rain barrels about 100 yards up the hill to the cabin. A cattle float lets it know when it need to be filled. The big bucks seem to like the idea of fresh water from what we could tell from previous observations.) 

About the setup: This stand location is very unique. Only being roughly 100 yards down the hill from the cabin always has made it easy to slip into on an east wind. It is situated on the NW corner of a huge “bowl” if you will. It’s a convergence of four ridge lines that form the shape of a diamond of sorts. In 2023 we had positioned the ladder stand directly west and uphill from the newly installed water tank, in a lone white pine, and had mixed results. Dad decided to move the ambush location this season to 23 yards directly north of the water tank in an attempt to not tip-off our wind when the thermals were working against us and going back down the hillside. I gave Dad a good earful when he decided he liked the view better to the tank when the stand was set up for a left-hander (and we are all righties at camp). I muttered under my breath begrudgingly, and we were about to call it good. I quickly realized we forgot one crucial step. Our new access, or how we were walking into the new spot. Instead of going straight down and risk blowing our scent over the tank, we created a new access trail far to the north that we could loop around to and have the wind in our face when we got in. The spot was perfect, theoretically. 

Now, getting a deer like this on camera a week before season was exactly what had happened to us in 2023. Actually it was this exact same deer! This year, instead of getting a little cooler, the heat was going to persist, and after waiting since the last opener, the trap was finally set! 

Sustained SSE winds all week meant deer patterns should virtually stay the same and since we had five days, we might be in the game! I told dad, “If he doesn’t show up on camera before Saturday, we will have a chance.” To our surprise, he DID NOT show! 

I know it sounds crazy to hear a deer hunter say they were “happy” that a big buck didn’t show up in daylight, but you have to think a little outside the box. This deer would never show on consecutive days and typically about five days apart. So we let the heat work for us instead of against us, for once.

We all got settled into our stands on Sept. 14, 2024, around 4 p.m. It was so hot I could barely stand being in the blind in shorts and a tee, but when I got the text at 6:48 saying “I hit him,” I quickly forgot how parched I was. The whirlwind of events that proceeded was intense to say the least. Texts flying. Tracking dog called. A search party was formed. Within an hour and a half it was all over.

Dad had just harvested the largest buck of his life! The largest anyone had ever got on our property or by anyone in our family while deer hunting. A perfect broadside heart shot and he did it with his compound. 

Forty-eight years of trial, error and opportunity. Just to do it like his daddy did, on opening day with three generations in toe. 

Fifteen points and score to be determined, but make no mistake … there is no substitute for PROPER PRIOR PLANNING (PPP)!!! 

 Congrats, Dad! You earned it. 

 Love always, your hunting buddy, 

~ Corey