I went to a stand further north that has always produced deer. I was in the stand just before daylight and sat until 3 p.m. only seeing squirrels and the occasional flock of geese. It was cold and I decided to still hunt my way out to my vehicle and head back to pick up my father. As I drove down a roadway between a clover and corn field towards our shooting range and cabin, I happened to glance up in the clover field and noticed a big racked deer lying with a doe. They were positioned perfectly on a slight hill overlooking our shooting range and cabin where they had a clear view. The wind was at their backs. This was one of the biggest deer I had seen in my 17 years of hunting. I quickly backed up the vehicle enough to get out of sight. I grabbed my 16 gauge Browning shotgun and coat out of the back and started to creep up over the hill hoping to sneak up on them, but they had caught my scent and were not there when I crept over the crest of the hill. I knew I hadn’t spooked them too bad so I went back to our farm house and told the story to my uncle who interrupted me halfway and said about an hour earlier he was in the same place I was and he watched this same buck breed that doe that was with him. He told me that he has hunted for 60-plus years and has never seen that before. We got into the truck and headed to pick up my father and maybe walk around a couple of swamps to see if the buck and doe had stopped in one of those. We went around a couple of swamps and nothing. Just as I was getting ready to unload my gun and call it a day, I decided to look over one last bank where there were small pines and thick brush. To my surprise, I came upon the big buck lying with his doe. As he stood, I fired and I knew I hit him good, but he disappeared into the thick brush. I traced the blood knowing he couldn’t be too far while my father and uncle kept watch from above to see if he happened to come out. It was now approaching 4:30 p.m. and rapidly getting dark. I had shot the biggest buck of my lifetime, but couldn’t find him. I finally traced him down about 75 yards from where I made the shot. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to recover this deer and have my father and uncle be part of the hunt with me. I know that the size of this 220-pound, 9-point with a 19-3/4 inches spread was directly attributed to our use of the Imperial Whitetail Clover and Chicory Plus in our food plots. Every time I look at this mount I will be reminded of the hard work we put into planting and maintaining the food plots and how that work pays off in the end.
