North Shore Hwy 61

By now most deer hunters have told and retold their story so many times they have the polished delivery of a stand-up comic. I’ve heard a couple of good ones this year. The first was told by my neighbor, Chuck, who showed up at my house shortly after sunset on opening day. In the bed of his truck were a 10-point buck and a decent doe.

“Got ‘em at 8:30 this morning,” Chuck said.

Of course there was more to the story. The buck appeared first and Chuck got off one shot—Bang!—before it disappeared in the balsams. The doe then “came out of nowhere” and—Bang!—was down with the second shot. When he went to look for the buck, he found and followed a blood trail a short distance, then decided to go back and field-dress the doe before tracking down the buck. That’s when he got lucky.

“When I was field-dressing the doe, I heard someone whistle. I answered the whistle and Rusty showed up,” he explained.

Rusty owns property by the state land where Chuck was hunting. He asked Chuck if he needed help. Chuck answered, yes. Together, they tracked and found the wounded buck. It was a nice one—Chuck’s best in a 50-some year hunting career.

Some might say that helping find a wounded deer was assistance aplenty, but Rusty was just getting started.

“I’ll go back and get one of my boys to help drag it out,” he told Chuck.

Soon he was back with his son, Colee, who is 19. He and Rusty brought the deer to a trail on Rusty’s property where it could be retrieved with an ATV. Then Rusty returned with Chuck to his stand and helped him haul out the doe. Chuck gave Rusty a ride home and picked up the buck.

“I really owe those two,” Chuck says.

Now, the punch line. A couple of days later, Chuck is telling (make that retelling) his story at the local post office. However, his audience already heard the story from Colee, who said he’d dragged out a deer for “some old guy about 70.” Now Chuck is eligible for Social Security, but is quick to point out he has a few birthdays to go before he reaches 70. Talk about taking the wind out of his “my biggest buck ever” story!

I heard the other tale just before deer season from Calie, our sales and marketing assistant at Northern Wilds Media. She was out trick-or-treating on Halloween when she got her deer—and it wasn’t a treat. She was driving home after spending the evening with friends when a doe jumped out in front of her. The collision was unavoidable, fatal to the deer and did extensive damage to her vehicle. Calie was unhurt, though the airbags were deployed.

“At least you didn’t get a black eye from the airbags,” I said.

Then came the punch line.

“You know,” she said. “I was dressed as Wyatt Earp and I didn’t even lose my big cowboy hat.”

I guess you don’t have to be a deer hunter to tell a good deer story.