The morning of 11/19/17 was one to remember. I entered the woods before day break excited for my first time out during the 2017 Michigan gun season. It was a chilly morning around 32 degrees with 10mph winds out of the northwest. I hiked back about a half mile into the woods hopeful that my first sit in the oxbow lake tree stand would pay off.

At first light I had a spike pay me a visit while cruising looking for doe’s. I knew it was going to be a good morning. The wind picked-up and light snow started to hit the ground.  Around 8:00a.m. I happened to glance over to my right where the smaller buck exited my view and there was a buck staring in my direction. I sat motionless against the tree hoping he did not see me. I felt the wind switching from NNW to WNW in the direction of the deer. The deer acted as he had not seen me, but sensed something was not quite right as he stood directly west of me.

For the next 7 minutes the buck stood facing me and turning his head from left to right viewing the woods. As the buck turned his head I could see a very good set of antlers shaking from left to right. That is when I knew he was a shooter. Those 7 minutes felt like hours waiting for the deer to turn broadside. The buck finally started to turn and head back to where he came from. I pulled my gun up and positioned my body for a shot. Bang! The deer went stumbling off before coming to a crash less than 50 yards away. There he was, a beautiful Michigan 8 pointer laying on the ground!

Lots of hard work went into making this a hunt a possibility. My parents purchased a new piece of land in Augusta MI in April 2017. Throughout this past summer my dad and I worked on getting the property ready for deer hunting. Countless hours were spent putting tree stands up, cutting trails, putting in food plots, scouting and checking trail cameras. The hard work paid off with 2 nice bucks down at the new Kamp Koldyke in 2017!

 

-Aaron