This year has been very tough to get out into the field, I’m a father of five with four of my daughters still living in our house, so the girls keep me busy. My job on the other hand also keeps me very busy, since the start of Covid-19, working in a prison for 26 years I’ve never in my career seen anything like what I’ve seen in the past 3 years. The prison system was one of the hardest hit places here in Michigan, the amount of hospital coverage was insane, and with already having staff shortages I cannot even explain to everyone how crazy it was, it was common to work an 18–19-hour day only to come back into work after a little over 4 hours of sleep and work 8 or sometimes another 16 hours shift. As of lately I can tell you things have slowed down a bit, on an average we are only getting mandated about once a week. During this time, it has been very hard to get out into the woods, but I can tell you without hesitation, WiseEye Smart Cameras has helped me with harvesting two mature bucks, one during the 2020 season and this one I’m posting pictures about in the 2022 season. This buck I think hung out on the south side of our property and I didn’t get many pictures of him until November 9th when I got two pictures of him back-to-back moving northwest on our hunting property. I received these pictures right after I got out of work, and the first thing I did was call the wife because I normally don’t hunt during the week much. The wife made plans for the kids, so I could get out into the woods.
My plans for this hunt were simple, I thought that just maybe he would head back south in the evening, so I sat in a ladder stand near the first camera that I got a picture of him. After about an hour of sitting I noticed a small buck walking across a field east of me and not coming in my direction, so I decided to try to entice him with a couple doe bleats, followed with a buck grunt, and within about 15 minutes I heard something to the west of me, I turned around and this 9 point that I had gotten on camera earlier was probably 35 yards away heading right towards me. By the time I put my binoculars down and grabbed my bow he was less than 20 yards away, my goal for this year was to record a hunt with my camera, but I chose not to worry about the camera and concentrate on getting my bow pulled back without being seen. By the time I was ready to take the shot he was 15 yards directly in front of me, I tried to stop him with a grunt but was unsuccessful, so I took the shot, and it was horrible, high, and just in front of the hind quarter. I was convinced this was a gut shot deer. I watched him run about 50 yards and then disappear into the tall weeds, I sat there in agony over that shot, I’ve been hunting most of my life and I can tell you counting on one hand, how many bad shots I’ve made.
I made a call and got ahold of my friend Kyle Hunter because I was sure that some tracking was going to be involved, he didn’t hesitate one bit, coming out and giving me a hand. When he finally got out there it had been close to an hour since I took the shot, Kyle tried his best talking me into giving it a couple more hours to sit after he had herd where the shot placement was, but against better judgment I made the decision to track it due having to work a double the next day. We found the deer at the last place I had seen him; I think that I had hit him so high, that I hit the femoral artery just below his spine and he bled out.
I must give a big Thank You to WiseEye cameras and all the people that are behind the camera who I’ve become friends with, I definitely believe that if it wasn’t for this camera, I would not have taken this buck, not on this day!!!