A deer hunting season has an uncanny way of making you feel like you’re on a roller coaster and I know many of you have experienced the incredible highs and gut wrenching lows of chasing whitetails. But for those that persevere through it all, the journey almost always turns for the best and today we’re sharing a story that is a perfect example of this. Peter Lynch had been on the buckless end of the stick for the past 19 years, but with some good fortune, hard work and smart hunting he was able to change his luck in 2010 and do it in a big way! Read on for Peter’s story and remember if you had a bad hunt, a rough season or some bad years, never hang your head and never give up. Hard work always pays off in the end.

“To this point it had been a long, but eventful hunting season.  During the bow season, I shot over the back of a 150 class eight point monster at 20 yards (yes…20 yards) and drew my bow twice without attempting a shot on a large non-typical buck named “Twin Towers”. Needless to say, I was very excited to enter the woods with my TC muzzleloader and harvest my first buck in over 19 years.  I am originally from Upper Michigan and my hunting partner calls me the “Buckless Yooper”.

It was 02:30 in the morning on Tuesday, December 28th and I was wide awake, anxious for the morning hunt.  Typically, I can sleep until my alarm sounds, but today was different.  I knew today was the day I would shoot an Iowa monster… but I would have to earn my trophy.  For the past two evenings, I had spent most of my time scouting a ridge called “falling timber”.  This ridge has a huge south face with acorns galore, and every night of scouting yielded several shooter bucks along with 12 to 15 does.  The only problem with the ridge is that you have to walk 3/4 of a mile through knee deep snow, up and down steep bluffs, transporting 30 pounds of gear.  Even without snow, hunting this ridge is a daunting task; I couldn’t imagine the climb with drifted snow.  Although it was going to be a challenge, I decided to “go deep or go home” and “man up”!  At 05:00 hours I started my quest to harvest a trophy buck.

Exhausted and dripping with sweat, I reached the apex of the ridge at 06:25 a.m.  Eager to climb a tree to start the hunt, I changed out of my sweaty gear, located a tree to climb, and ascended 20 feet overlooking the ridge.  The time was now 07:00 and a few deer were starting to filter in from the neighboring property – directly in front of my stand location.  Although, I was in a great spot, I was concerned I would not be able to take a shot over 40 yards because of the number of saplings. growing on the ridge face. Later, my concern would become reality.

At 09:15 a.m., I looked right – glassing the area – and noticed the muzzle of a deer.  About 30 seconds later (which seemed like 30 minutes) the deer started to move away from the trees and I saw the rack… and then I saw another rack.  Now with my heart pounding and my breath increasing, I had to make a choice – which one to shoot.  Do I shoot the ten pointer or the eight pointer?  To be completely honest, I have never had to make a decision like this before, but welcomed the opportunity.  As they filtered closer, now about 40 yards, I decided to harvest the eight point buck because of the uniqueness of his rack and his body size.  At 09:20 the thunder of my TC Impact rang through the woods and my prior concern became my newest reality – due to the thickness of the sapling trees, I managed to shoot a branch twenty yards in front of the buck.

With my heart in my throat I remained motionless, because, to my surprise, neither buck showed concern about the shot and continued eating within minutes.  Slow and steady, I reloaded my muzzle-loader, steadied my nerves, and waited for another shot.  At 09:30 a.m. the eight point buck moved free of the branches and I took the shot.  The buck ran twenty yards, died in stride and fell hard to the ground creating a puff of snow.  At 09:31 I was no longer a “Buckless Yooper”. – Peter Lynch

Opening weekend of my archery season has now passed and it certainly was an eventful couple days. I felt everything from the ultimate thrill of a buck down, to the sickest feeling in my stomach over a bad shot. Overall it was a great weekend, but to be honest I lost a little sleep over it too. I felt today I had to vent a little bit, so bear with me on this somewhat long post, I think there is a lesson for us all to learn….. That being said, the weekend did get off to a great start as my dad and one of my best buddies, Josh, came to join me at my home for deer camp! As most of you know, there are few things as exciting as the crew getting together for a great weekend of hunting, camaraderie and a few cold beers.

First thing Saturday morning we were in the stan and things started slow, as Josh and I saw nothing in our double set up. Josh is a buddy that I have been trying to get into hunting for a long time, finally this year it all came together and we were able to prepare for the 2010 season as a team. I was almost more excited about getting Josh a deer than I was about getting one for myself. So on the first morning, I was really hoping to film him shooting his first deer, but no such luck. Getting back out early, our hopes were high for the afternoon sit, as I was putting Josh into a stand that was seeing consistent action from bucks and we were getting them on camera. Around 1:30 we hiked to the far east end of my property and I immediately pulled my trailcam card. I was pretty excited that it had caught 3 or 4 different bucks frequenting the area. None were huge by any means, but all would be respectable for Josh’s first deer. With a little bit of a hassle, I was able to get the climbing sticks and stand up in the tree and Josh was set to go. I then scooted out and headed down to another property about 40 minutes away where big buck sightings were to be expected.

My evening’s sit got off to a good start with a small buck walking to within ten yards of my stand after only about 30 minutes, but things got even more exciting at about 5:30. Between the wind blowing my stand and my own excitement I nearly fell out of the tree when I read a text from Josh saying that he just shot a 9 point buck! And it was actually a buck that we had got on trailcam the week before! Not a giant by any means, but a great first deer! I immediately called him from my stand, gave him some instructions and then headed for the truck.

I was absolutely thrilled and I was shaking almost as much as when I shot my first deer, but the whole way home I drove through torrential rain and I began to get worried. Unfortunately my worry proved to be warranted. To make a very very long story short, we searched and searched for his buck, but never found it. Due to a consistent downpour and what we believe was a shoulder shot, we found only two specks of blood and no deer. We grid-searched all night Saturday and all morning/afternoon on Sunday but found nothing. Our hope is that he has nothing but a sore shoulder and we’ll be seeing him again soon. This was the first deer that I’ve really been involved with shooting or tracking personally and not been able to find. I’m sure many of you can relate, but I was obviously really busted up about this and I just felt horrible for Josh. This was a serious low.

But after spending many long hours tracking, we decided that we needed to get back in the saddle for Sunday evening. So I headed along the far north fencerow and took a stand over the inside corner of a corn field, hoping to see a nice fat doe cruising through. And just before dark, I saw just that.

Now here is where I hit another low, mixed with a high. But mostly a low. Three doe came cruising out from my left and were working towards the corn. I wanted to be able to see all the deer, to make sure there were no fawns before I shot the front doe. Once I could see them all, I knew the front doe looked like the oldest and I made the call to shoot her just before she got to the corn. This is where I went wrong. Because she was just a step from being in the corn, I got rushed, quickly drew, bleated with my mouth, set the pin and fired. But I didn’t take the neccessary time to calm down, aim small and focus on my form.

My shot was high, I spined her and she went right to the ground. Honestly at this point I panicked, I felt horrible and as quickly as possible I followed up with another arrow to put her down for the count. I know this happens, but it was the first time for me and I just felt awful about it. It was difficult to see that deer flailing around on the ground and it stuck with me last night when I tried to sleep. What sticks with me the most is that right before I put the killing shot in her, she was staring right at me. Although I am a hunter and I kill deer, I 100% respect the life I am taking and always want to do it as humanely and quickly as possible. The whole process probably didn’t last more than a minute or so, but never-the-less I could have done better and I need to do better.

That being said, in the end I have a doe down and fresh venison for the table. It was truly a weekend of highs and lows, filled with a number of good lessons. First being that things almost never go as planned when hunting and you just need to be ready for that. You can practice all year for a circumstance and stil make mistakes. That being said, in my instance, I realize I need to continue to discipline myself to slow down and really really focus before shooting. Same for Josh, he had  an incredible experience and did a lot of things right when his buck came in, but in the end it was a few inches that kept him from harvesting his buck.

Hunting is a game of inches, miniscule margins for error and a little bit of luck. So if you take anything from my weekend’s tale, it’s that the work can never end and the devil is in the details. Work hard to eliminate even the smallest errors in your hunting set-up, preparation or practice and in the end those small improvements can be the difference between an intense high and a sinking low.

Well I pulled off the California miracle. Stuck in Cali for the fall, it looked like I would have only about 4 days to hunt back in MI. With my short season, any buck was in my sights, but my expectations were low. It wasn’t going to be easy to tag a buck with only a few days to hunt and very little time for preparation, I would have to play my cards perfectly and then hope for a lot of luck. Today I’m excited to say that I made it happen, got ‘er done and got venison in the freezer.

On Saturday morning, November 7, I got settled into my blind at about 6 am. I had a good hour before daylight, but the moon lit up the woods pretty well. Within maybe 20 minutes I had a flagging doe move through, followed by another 3 deer. I was  just able to pick out their sillouhettes as they moved by. 30 minutes after the sun rose, I had another two doe come crashing by and I thought for sure there would be a buck on one of their tails, but still no luck.

Finally at about 8 am, four doe moved in from the East. Long story short, the largest of the four doe moved in my direction and I decided that if she offered a good shot, I would take her. As she moved into about 20 yards, I waited for her to step into my shooting lane, but before drawing I turned my head just a touch, to make sure the other three doe weren’t looking at me. This was a huge mistake. That mature doe instantly spotted my slight movement and immediately locked down on me. Foot stomping, head bobbing, she stared me down for five minutes until finally snorting and running  30 yards off. But curiousity got the best of her and for another 15 minutes her and the other doe circled around me trying to pick up my scent or catch me making another move. They failed on both accounts.

Well as I’m frozen with my bow held up and these four doe eying me down, I spot movement from the North. Here comes a buck, headed right towards the doe and I. But of course, things have to be difficult. Seeing these four doe being so uneasy, he takes an interest in what I might be. So now I have four doe and a buck, stomping, staring and trying to wind me. Luckily, I didn’t flinch and I had gone to great lengths to control my scent. After maybe 30 minutes of this, the matriarch doe finally turned to leave and the other three doe followed. Immediately the buck lost interest in me and turned to follow the doe. He stepped into my shooting lane at about 25 yards and my mind turned to mush.

I always seem to stop consciously thinking when shot opportunities occur, my body just moves. My bow was drawn and a slight bleat came from my lips, stopping the buck broadside. My shot connected behind the shoulder, albeit a little high, with a loud thud and the buck took off like a bat out of hell. He busted through the brush along a hillside for about a 100 yards and then crashed like a ton of bricks, just out of eye sight.

I nervously waited half an hour and then crept out of my blind to check the spot of impact. Although I never did find the arrow, what I did come upon was a blood trail straight out of a h0rror movie. The 2 blade Rage lived up to the hype and absolutely blasted through this deer. After waiting another hour, I headed to where I heard him drop and spotted him laying a little over a 100 yards from my blind.

This is no Pope & Young monster deer, he’s a young 6 point buck, but still a trophy in my eyes. My season was short and dependent on a lot of things going right, if I wanted to harvest any deer at all. Although I don’t want to typically take young deer like this, given the circumstances, I was more than happy to fling an arrow through this 6 pointer. I consider myself lucky and blessed to have been able to have the opportunity to take this buck and I can’t wait to eat some back straps!

More to come soon on what I learned from this hunt, how my new gear worked and what the keys to my success were.

I’m excited to say that one of my buddies I used to work with at Gander Mountain just bagged a nice 8 point buck this morning. Nick Clark was also the man that helped set up my new bow a little over a week ago, so thanks again to him for that. More importantly here is his story of how he took this unique 8 point in Coopersville, MI. Congrats buddy!

It was the morning after Halloween and the weather had finally turned to be chilly and overcast. It was one of the first hunts of the season where it wasn’t raining and the wind wasn’t howling.  I was hunting newly acquired property in Coopersville, MI. I approached my stand location with my summit viper climber and a newly purchased Quest bow and accessories. I climbed up a birch tree that was located between a alfalfa field and a bedding area that was connected by a ridge. Across the ridge lied an overgrown power line scattered with fresh scrapes and rubs.  I had found the spot the weekend before and I knew it could produce an excellent chance to hone in on cruising bucks. Up to this point in the season, it had been slow, merely the scattered acquaintance of does and fawns. However, with patience we knew that once the pre-rut started, bucks would be on the move. An hour after first light I noticed a figure making its way towards me from the alfalfa field. The figure through my binoculars was a nice mainframe six point buck approximately 80 yards away. I slowly moved toward my bow hanging on a Realtree EZ hanger to get ready. The buck slowly strolled down to me 30 yards way and stopped behind a large oak tree. As I drew back the buck heard my movement and I was stuck at half draw. The buck cautiously gazed around as I was still at half draw. After what seemed like a lifetime he moved past the tree and I continued to draw. He started walking again and I grunted out of the corner of my mouth to pause the buck. I released my arrow at the slightly quartering to buck, 25 yards away. After the hit, he ran in front of me and stopped 70 yards away, where he wobbled back and forth and dropped to the ground. I knew that it was a perfectly placed shot and he was down. The excitement of a successful harvest finally hit me as I started to shake. I texted my hunting buddy located a few hundred yards from me to tell him the news. As I renocked an arrow I noticed the sound of a deer trotting in the newly fallen leaves. I turned around and there appeared another 8 point, 30 yards away. However, this deer was a smaller 8 point so I elected to pass. After another hour or so I climbed down from my perch to meet up with my buddy. We started to track the deer but could see the buck was lying dead in the two track not far away. The small 6 point turned out to have several more stickers and a unique rack. The buck scored 8 total points and many more little stickers around the base. Mornings like this don’t come too often, but when they do, there is not much more a bowhunter can ask for. It’s a hunt that I will always remember and time spent with good friends. After all the preparation, scouting, and practicing sometimes all you need is a little luck and to be at the right place at the right time. Good luck to all Hunters!!!!