Murphy’s Law and a Nebraska Monarch Leads to Disbelief

Day 3: Planning for the Evening Hunt

After transporting Aaron’s buck back to camp, he offered to film my evening hunt and it would give me the opportunity to see a tree saddle master in action. He still had a doe tag to fill and I would be lying if I didn’t selfishly want the company. When we hiked to my stand location, he laughed and told me that I indeed had a MUCH easier walk than he did to his spot. He previously had nearly a mile walk and I had 300 yards. The last year and a half have not been kind to my waistline, so I had looked for two things; deer sign and a short walk!

Tree Saddle Hunting 101

Observing Aaron get situated in his tree saddle set-up truly makes me want to try it. It’s mobile, allows more movement (when needed), and doesn’t involve hauling a 20 lb. oversize platform up the tree and anchoring it. Once he was squared away, I decided to adjust my set-up. This would turn out to be the biggest mistake of my Nebraska trip. Maybe in bowhunting ever. My stand faced away from where the deer were coming from, so I had a few areas in which I could shoot. My camera was on the left side, but that was where all the deer had been coming from, and to be honest, it was in my way. Remember, I don’t video my hunts and this evening sit would prove that 100%.

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

Back to my disastrous change-up. I moved my bow from the right side of the tree to the left side for easy access and less movement on my part when a deer presented itself near the cornfield. The camera arm set was then secured on the right so I could film Aaron, in case a doe presented him a shot. Aaron asked me if I really wanted to change things up and I said yes because all of the deer I had seen had come from the corn (which is at the top-left of the photo, out of view).

The first two hours were nothing less than slow. We both shot some b-roll footage, snapped some photos and enjoyed God’s creation. My stand faced north and Aaron faced southwest, so we could view nearly all areas were deer would come in.

Grunt Like You Mean It

The intense woodsy silence broke when Aaron clicked his tongue twice and gestured behind me with his head. “Deer movement,” he said. I turned, looked and saw nothing. A few minutes later we both saw two does, tails up, come barreling downhill through an opening in the woods. We knew a buck was chasing them. This was precisely when the unlucky chain of events began. The does circled around us, into a clearing behind Aaron, but were out of range, so I angled the camera arm to get a view of what he could see. They sauntered off within 3-4 minutes after casually staring at us. I decided to test my new Woodhaven call and grunted to see if I could bring the buck in. We waited nearly fifteen minutes with no buck appearance, so I sat back down.

Stumblin’, Bumblin’, and Grumblin’

For over three decades, I’ve been hunting whitetail deer with relative success. It just so happens, that something in the Nebraska air caused me to forget everything I had been taught. Number one, I knew I should have picked up my bow as soon as I grunted. I even felt it, but got lazy and left my bow on the hook. Second, I should have thought to move the camera arm back and get situated for a shot, but I failed. I was far too focused on getting video that I neglected to review my shooting situation. Third, I had grunted on the right side of the tree, nearer the woods. Forgetting that deer can pinpoint the exact location of the grunt would cost me dearly.

H.P. Murphy Makes His Debut

Twenty minutes after I grunted, Aaron gave two clicks and when I looked at him, he glanced behind me. “Buck. Buck coming in.” I slowly turned and at 25 yards, here walked the biggest buck I have ever had this close during an archery season. He walked with deliberate purpose. Step-by-step, he stopped every few moments to chill, and look around before he continued on. He crossed a fallen tree by stepping over it, not jumping, but stepping over it. Get the picture at how big this deer might be? My bow was on the left side of the tree, so I grasped it and slowly brought it between me and the tree, all while not taking my eyes off of the buck. My safety harness was in the way, so I calmly lifted my VXR over the safety strap. Once I got the bow over, I saw I had a quartering-to shot, but the camera arm was in my way! I couldn’t raise the bow over the arm because it would be obvious to the buck I was there, so I brought it across my body. My stabilizer passed over the bar with a half inch to spare, but I had to maneuver it around in such a way that I now would only have a couple spots in which to shoot.

As the buck walked to within 15 yards of the stand, I shifted my weight to my left foot and the treestand let out a loud creak. The buck heard it, but gave me a pass and slowly took another step. As I turned my right foot, my heel caught the cable on the stand with a “TWANG!” and the buck looked right at me! The disappointment and sickening feeling I felt at that moment was awful. The buck trotted out to 35 yards and I let out a “Maaaaht” to get him to stop before getting behind a tree. He was already not happy with what he had seen and I believe I was a bit too loud. He arched and bolted back into the brush. The largest bodied, largest racked buck I had ever seen was gone!

Aaron and I turned to each other. Disbelief and disappointment were quickly replaced with, “How cool was that!” I would have liked to have released an arrow, and I was dumbfounded, but I gained knowledge for future hunts and shared a great experience with a friend. This will be one of those experiences that I will never forget, for multiple reasons. In case you were wondering, the H.P. in H.P. Murphy stands for Humble Pie. I ate plenty of it that night.

As you can imagine, the ride back to camp included some great conversation and review of what had transpired. I knew that my chances of seeing this buck again were slim to none, but I prepared to hunt the next day with newfound vigor. Aaron reviewed his footage from day one and it was determined that my buck was also the buck he had missed. The buck survived two encounters with us without so much as a scratch. Tim, Aaron and I all decided to get to bed early, but that changed rather quickly. Three hours of great conversation kept us up into the early hours of the next day. We knew we would be tired, but what a great time with friends!