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Old Grizz Stories |
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Would you believe Old Grizz still has the antlers, and shotgun shell. This whitetail buck was shot six months after old grizz returned from 4 years in the Far East & South East Asia. Brother Dan was in the Navy, but Don was still at home. Deer Season in upper New York State begins in late November, so this story begins on Thanksgiving morning 1967. I arrived at Dads house at 03:00 in the morning for breakfast and the Jonney Hand Warmer ritual. The hand warmer ritual involved filling the hand warmers with fuel and setting them ablaze to burn of the excess fuel. They looked like three bombs waiting to explode. When the fires went out, the hand warmers were placed in their red felt bags and placed in our coat pockets. Heavy coats and boots were put on to deal with the bitter cold one had to endure on the deer stand. We piled into dad's pickup and headed for Naples, N.Y. where we would hunt on State Land. Dads pickup had a camper shell on the back where our shotguns & other hunting gear was. My shotgun was a 12 ga pump that I had cut the barrel down to 20 in and soldered a BB on the end for a site. I had cut the barrel off with a hacksaw. My ammo of choice was a German made rifled slug. It took about an hour of driving to get to Naples, still dark outside and very cold. Farmhouses and barns were aglow with warm light. A few barn doors were open, displaying huge whitetail bucks hanging in the doorways. Wait a minute the season opened this morning, its still dark, how could dressed out bucks be hanging in barns already? We arrived at the hunting area, parked the truck, and climbed in the back camper shell to await the breaking dawn. Now Dad had this habit off breaking out a picture of a huge whitetailed buck, and telling us this is what we are looking for. As dawn approached, one more ritual needed to be performed....................... |
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We each had to pour some Indian Buck Lure (Doe pee) onto our hand warmers so that the heat would increase the smell and hide our odors while on the deer stands. This is also a Doe in heat attractant. Now I thought if this was the case, the more of this stuff that was on my body would increase my chances of attracting a buck. Soooo...............I proceeded to pour it on my boots, pants and coat. This stuff really stinks Dad and Don said it was time to get out and hunt! I guess it was hunt or puke. Each of us hunted on our own, where we wanted, so we split off and went our individual ways as we climbed the hill in the dawn. I went about 2 miles in and parked myself up against a tree. Daylight came and the thunderous roar of shotguns started. My hands and feet were frozen but I dared not move, thus ruin my chances of getting my deer. Two does moved through the snow about 50 yards from me never noticing me. It was beautiful, snow covered the trees and ground and the early morning sun turned everything silver. After two hours of NO BUCK I decided to move. I worked myself back towards where I knew Dad was hunting, moving through a stand of 12 ft pine trees. Deer tracks were everywhere in the pines. I exited the pine stand and looked uphill, Dad sat with his back to a tree, his head slumped down, shotgun on his lap. As I approached I could hear the steady sound of his loud snoring. I didn't want to get shot so I moved around the tree too his back before I would poke him. I noticed many fresh deer tracks around the tree. His snoring must have acted as a deer call. He awoke with a start. |
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He said that he wasn't sleeping just resting his eyes. He stood up, looked at me, shook off the snow and said...what stinks? He was cold so he headed back to the truck. He had cleared a good spot by the tree, so I decided to use his spot. I went out about 70 yard from the stand and hung my hand warmer in a tree and returned to the stand. I too started to doze off. About thirty minutes later I awoke for some reason. A buck was moving away from me towards the hand warmer in the tree. He was already about sixty yards out. All I really had was a butt shot. I took my shot hoping to get him in the heart as he swung to the side one time. He went down like a ton of bricks, but jumped back up and started running in a large circle. I thought, what the heck. I jacked in another shell and started moving towards the buck. I was of no concern to him. All the magazines and books I had read about deer hunting never said anything about this. I stopped at about 15 yards and watched as the deer tore past me in his circle. There was some blood and something pink on the snow, so I moved to investigate. The pink, was the buck's tongue. What the heck. I shot the buck again as it went by me. He went down and stayed down. I moved over to the buck, one proud hunter. After a short investigation, I found a hole under the rear of the bucks left ear. The first slug had taken a rise hitting the buck in the back of the head, taking out his tongue and knocking him silly. After reading the instructions that I had in my pocket for gutting a deer, I gutted it and dragged it up the hill to the road leading back to the parking lot. I noticed other drag marks and blood in the snow as I made my way back down. Upon getting to the parking lot I found Dad and Don getting warm. They were excited about my deer, small horns though. I asked if they got one, because of the blood on the trail. They said no, some guys had just dragged a hunter out who was gut shot. Ouch that had to hurt. We headed home and through the New York Fish & Wildlife checkpoint, where I was told I had a fine deer, but what stinks? My first deer was butchered into steaks and sausage, that was fine eating. After I left New York, Dan came home from the Navy and he and Don hunted with Dad for a few years. To the best of my knowledge Dad never shot a deer or wanted too. He sure enjoyed the hunt, though. Dan and Dad both eventually left New York, leaving Don to continue the tradition, on his own. Not the same.................... GRIZZ |
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The First Buck 
