Steve Bartylla will bring you along as he hunts Mosurri, Wisconsin and on a late season doe hunt at the end of the year.

BUCKS & BEARDS DEERHUNT 2000
 Day #1: Matt Parker Gets The First Buck | Day #2: Re-Scouting  | Day #3: Looking For Bucks | Day #4: I Get A Buck  | Day #5: Brent's Turn At The Plate | Day #6: Rain, Wind & A Massive Buck  | Day #7: More Hunting | Day #8: Final Day |  

Day 1 - Matt Parker Gets The First Buck

I left Wisconsin mid afternoon and arrived at Bucks & Beards around 9 PM. Brent could not arrive until tomorrow night. The intent was for him to film me as much as possible. As some of you may know, we produce educational bowhunting videos. Although they are not the "shoot `em up" variety, we believe we must include a harvest or two at the end of each tape to illustrate that our techniques do indeed work. 

Mark and Matt Parker pose by their truck for a photo. Mark held Matt out of college this fall so they could hunt together. They have made the most of it by hunting all over the country. It has led to experiences they will cherish for a lifetime.

The only two in camp when I arrived were Mark Parker and his son Matt. It did not take long to realize that both were very skilled and serious bowhunters. Matt almost border lined on unbelievable. Although he is only 18 years old, he has already harvested over 30 deer with a bow & arrow. As amazing as that is, what is more so is that he hasn’t missed a single shot since the first one he took. That only miss was the result of shooting a slow bow and the deer dropping under the arrow. By the way, did I mention he won the Louisiana state shooting archery tournament at age 16? 

Earlier that afternoon, Matt had shot a very nice buck. Donnie had set him up on a stand at the edge of an overgrown field, covering a heavily used scrape line. 

Matt poses with his buck. Although I never had a chance to score it, I am certain it will gross somewhere in the 140s. Photo courtesy of Mark Parker.

Matt heard a squirrel barking and he immediately hit his grunt tube, a habit he got into long ago. As Matt turned to the direction of the squirrel he heard a deer making a scrape and what sounded like him making a rub. It appears the buck did not care for another to be invading his turf and was taking his aggressions out by rubbing and scraping before he came storming in. As he neared Matt’s shooting lane, he drew. Just as the buck stepped into the opening. Matt grunted with his mouth to stop him and let the arrow fly.

The 32 yard flight the arrow had to take seemed to take forever. Matt told me that when ever he practices he can never actually follow the arrow flight, but he saw every twirl as the arrow spiraled its path and sunk beautifully behind the buck’s front legs.

Spinning at the impact, the buck twirled and ran back the way it came. A mere 40 yards later it was done. Matt excitedly crawled from his stand and made his way over to inspect his trophy. Having believed it was a nice 8 point, he was thrilled to see a perfect 10 point rack waiting for him.

Tomorrow: My hunt begins
  For those looking for every advantage in understanding whitetail deer, Steve Bartylla's column Becomming A Student Of Whitetial Deer is a must read.