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Well the trip was long awaited and well derserved by all involved.
The trip started out on 11/11/89 by all the "Deerslayers" meeting
at Kittery Trading Post. From there is was a long and anxious ride
to St. Stephens,New Brunswick where Al's mother lives. The ride up
made everyone even more anxious because of all the Bucks coming
back down I95 from either Maine or Canada. Upon arriving in Canada
we were met at Al's mothers house by a couple different types of
home baked pies,pastries, and sandwiches. We were only 3 hours from
our final destination. The next morning we were off and rolling.
About 1 1/2 hours into the final leg we got a taste of blood, I
hit a grouse with my truck. On Monday everyone woke up to the smell
of bacon and eggs about 1 1/2 hours before dawn. It was a nice cold
morning about 36 degrees and the guides came in not long after we
started breakfast. Everyone split up 3 men to a guide and we were
off to the field before first light. The day was long,cold,windy,
and fruitless for all but one, Al was about 1/2 a mile down the
road from me and at 4:30 I heard the magnum roar. When they came
to pick me up they had a 17 point buck in the back of the truck,
I won't go into details of the kill so Al can tell the story. Day
2 comes along with two inches of fresh snow, we all head out with
the exception of Al who still has a smile from ear to ear. We drop
off one guy on the stand I took the previous day and Mike Gilon and
I decided to go with our guide and cut a track. We traveled down a
bunch of logging roads and couldn't find one track so we got out
and walked around a big "clear cut" with still no luck locating any
sign. On the way back out of the area a big buck crossed the road not
10 minutes ater we came down it. I started on that track from there.
2 1/2 hours later after sneaking through all the dense brush and all
the blow downs I found fresh droppings. As I bent down to see how warm
they were the buck went crashing off through the brush not 25 yards
away. I spun around looking through the trees trying to see him but
to no avail he gone. I took out my Bleat call and tried to call him
back in, this went on for a good half hour. I decided to get back
on his tracks to find were he jumped from and to see if i was the cause
of him jumping. About 10 minutes back into tracking him I jumped
another deer a Spike, he stopped about 35 yards out trying to figure
what I was coming out of the trees. That was his first and last
mistake. I dragged him back to the logging road navigating the woods
by compass, and that was a spooky feeling. Day 3 put me in Al's
previous stand, at noon time the guide came down to drop off lunch
to all of us. When his truck went out of sight and sound by just a
few minutes a nice doe stepped out on the road about 100 yards away.
I put up the rifle and started to watch her cross the road when she
suddenly stopped and looked back over shoulder. I thought the buck
must have been right behind her. She then turn back and walk into
the woods. About an hour later I tried the Bleat call again. I was
trying to get comfortable in the stand when I heard a noise to my
lower left. There 15 feet away stood another Spike horn looking
right at me, I almost Sh_t. The two of us had a staring contest
going for almost 5 minutes, then he felt safe and turned and walked
away through the woods. He traveled about 30 yards and came to the
edge of the logging road and stuck his head out while looking in
my direction for movement. After walking on the road 50 yards he
went back in the woods. 30 minutes later another doe came out from
the same side and walked the entire length of the logging road about
150 yards. When we got back to camp that night a former Decie Bob
Badger had a nice 7 pointer that weighed 148 pounds. Day 4 started
with warm weather 52 degrees and again I was back on the same stand.
At 8:30 I heard 2 shots in the distance and 15 minutes later one shot
every close to my left. The shot was so close that the guide came down
and asked me if was me. Again after he was out of sight and sound I
tried the Bleat call, not even 15 minutes passed when I looked to my
right and took a double take. There in the middle of the logging road
stood a nice 5 pointer 120 yards away broadside. After all kinds of
fumbling and shaking that seemed to be an eturnity I settled down and
took the shot. He just about dropped but caught himself and lunged
forward across the road into the woods. When I got down to the area he
was standing there was quite an amount of blood in the water from the
rain and melting snow from the previous day before so I knew he has
hit good. Mike Gilon was about 150 yards farther down the road from
where the deer had been standing. I called to him to signal the guide
to come down and he said that he's already on his way. When the guide
arrived and saw the blood his reply was "You hit him good,aye". As we
went into the direction the buck traveled we noticed that the deer
just about ran over the gut pile from Al's deer, but there was no
blood trail. We went over a small banking on the edge of the road to
find 3 runs from that crossing. He and I got on the 2 to the right and
still couldn't find anymore blood. So he went back to the beginning of
the trail to try and figure which trail the deer took. I started to
zig zag the 3 trails for sign. As I started back on the first Z ther
was a blowdown I would have to go over. As I approached it I stood up
on my toes to look over it and there laid the deer upside down with
his horns stuck in the ground. He had traveled the run to the left and
collapsed when he hit the ground crossing over the blowdown. I called
to the guide and told him he was over here and we preceeded to dress
him out. We took him into town to weigh him in and register him, he
weighed in at 147 and they figured he was a 2 year old deer. Again
that evening one of the other guys in the camp from Virginia came
in with a big 9 pointer that weighed 217 pounds. He told us the
story at supper. He said "I was watching a scape that he had found
the day before when the buck came out to refresh it. At 25 yards he
shot it in the shoulder with his .270 and it dropped. It got up
again and he shot it in the shoulder a second time and it dropped.
Again the deer got up and he shot it a third time only in the lungs
now and again it dropped. He stood there watching the deer, it wasn't
moving but could hear and see it breathing. As he approached the
deer it turn and looked at him and again tried to get up and run.
But before it got to his feet he put his gun down and jumped the
deer to wrestle it to the ground. He and the deer must have gone
about the same weight 250+. He then tried reaching for his knife
to cut the deer throat but when he did it started to thrash and
hit him in his chest with the horns. So he decided to just lay on
him until he died. On day 5 one of the other guys in our party Mike
Ricard shot a small doe in the morning. At supper everyone was talking
over the past week and kind of feeling that the week had flown by.
On the last half hour of shooting time one of the guys in our party
Jeff missed a real nice 8 pointer 40 yards away with two shots.
It was a very solumn night for him. So for stats we got 5 deer out
of 8 hunters and it will be a memorable hunting adventure for us all.
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