Annually, the first weekend of November brings me to the
place where I grew up, the Weiland Family Farm, located just south of Brainerd,
Minnesota. Here, the Minnesota rifle
season is opened amidst the peak of the rut.
The hunt is always interesting as this particular time of the year can
produce weather varying in “degree” from ten degrees to fifty and can also
produce high winds, rain, sleet, snow, and everything in between.
The 2015 gun season in Minnesota had a very positive weather
outlook as the opening weekend neared.
The week prior brought with it above-average temperatures that seemed to
insult the weather gods and probably even proved tough on rutting bucks’
daytime activities. Grasses which are
normally brown and drab remained quite green and full of life. However, two days prior to the opening
scheduled day of rifle season which was November 7, 2015, temperatures were
predicted to drop off to more “average” levels, even though the thermometers
would still only barely be cracking freezing.
The boys, Nolan, John Daniel, my brother, Nicholas, and
myself were all packed up and heading back to Brainerd with high hopes of a big
whitetail and a long weekend of R & R in front of us. Grandpa Dan had sent over a few teaser
photographs during the prior weeks of a few bucks that he had photos of on his
property so far this fall and there was the added factor that absolutely
anything could show up during the rut in pursuit of a hot doe and a little
added pressure from any of the bordering properties could always bring
something new to the area.
We ventured west and found ourselves pulling into the
driveway of my parents’ farm a little over an hour after sundown. As I began turning into the driveway we
noticed a big buck coming to the road’s edge just a hundred yards north of the
farm and drove up to see if we could garner an additional look. Sure enough, a very large buck! -It was difficult to see whether he was an
eight, a nine, or a ten point, but it was easy to see that he was indeed big. –Big bodied and big antlers. This was enough to get the blood pumping
right off the bat and we weren’t even parked yet.
The opening morning of the season began cool, but not cold,
and brought with it nearly immediate action. I had a basket racked eight point come to a
grunt call on a string just minutes after the opening bell tolled. With it were several shots around the area
and the season was well underway. At
about 7:30 am crashing followed by grunting and then more crashing ensued. It quickly became evident that a doe was
being chased by a buck through some of the poplar trees that my stand
overlooked near a beaver dam. I readied
my gun as I had a gut feeling it was something big chasing, but didn’t know for
certain. What I did know was that in all
likeliness I would have only a few seconds, if that, to make a quick decision
if the deer kept moving through the woods the way that they were. With that, suddenly a big doe popped out and
was looking over her shoulder. She was
about 160 yards from me and trotted up the slashing in the poplars before
dipping back into the trees. Only a few
seconds later, on the same trail, popped out a long-tined buck trotting with
his head down to the ground and stopping to scan up and see where his
newly-discovered love for that morning was.
Immediately, I identified it as a buck I would shoot if presented with
the right shot and clicked my safety to the fire position. The buck followed the exact path as the doe
and trotted toward the stand before going broadside where he too would duck
back into the poplars in pursuit. Just
as the buck turned broadside I grunted loud to stop him, centered the
crosshairs, and let ‘er rip.
–The shot was a little quicker than I would have liked it to
be, but there was no waiting around. In
this instance, there would be “the quick or the hungry” as one of my friends,
Pat McGrew, once stated. Fortunately, on
this particular morning we would be eating well as my shot rang out the buck
dropped immediately. I had a suspicion
that I had hit him a bit high severing his spine, but the buck lay completely
motionless on the ground. I watched the
buck’s antlers, which was pretty much all I could really see through my scope
for several minutes to ensure that he was down for good.
In fact, I did not even get out of my stand for the next
three hours as deer continued to move all around me that morning. Several other small bucks were cruising
through the woods with their noses to the ground in search of fresh doe scent
and another buck was seen chasing a few does immediately to the south of my
stand. I finally got out of my stand at
about eleven o’clock when my brother and father arrived. Once out of the stand I told them how the
morning went and we all went down to check out the buck that I had shot
earlier. In complete honesty I knew it
was a solid buck, but had no idea as to what exactly he was as the entire time
I saw him up on his feet before shooting was only mere seconds.
Upon inspection, it was indeed a very nice heavy horned eight
point buck, probably a 4.5 year old. The
hit was indeed a bit high as I did sever his spine, but took out the top of his
lungs as well. The three of us went back
to the farm, picked up my boys, and brought them back out to clean and pick the
deer up.
The rest of the weekend continued to go well as we climbed
the stands strewn across the Weiland Farm for the next few days with Nolan, and
JD joining us on many of the hunts. We
saw several more bucks and a couple handfuls of does. Nick, who was hunting with his bow, had some
luck as well. He put a nice shot on a
deer that provided a great blood trail for JD to work. Later on in the weekend
JD was with me when we shot a doe as she was being chased by a young buck only
yards from our stand. Other sightings on
the farm included a bear and several grouse over the long weekend.
We got the deer all trimmed up and ready for the meat locker
with all hands on deck as the Indian Summer continued to bless us. –This annual ritual is one we all look
forward to sharing with one another every year and look forward to many more
trips west with “the boys” back to the Weiland Family Farm where it all
began.