Hunter: Justin Verner
Points: 9 (5L, 4R)
County: Douglas
Season: 2017-2018
Hunt Story
It was the last day of deer gun season, and my son was excited and insistent that we go hunting even in face the frigid temperatures. We prepared well the night before. The morning started early, before sunrise. It was 14 degrees and at times some cutting winds. After walking my son Austin to his ground location, I grabbed my climbing stand and walked to a small ridge between two creeks. There was a rub line that also had a nice scrape still cleaned out from the rut. I set up right on the rub line 20 feet high in an oak tree that had good cover from vines and smaller trees with leaves still present. This was the first time that I didn't get hot getting up the tree. It was light by the time that I made my full ascent. My son had texted about seeing four does and a very large boar all before I made my full ascent. He asked about shooting a doe and I replied, no. He didn't shoot the hog, because an ethical shot did not present itself. That all happened before 8:30 am. The morning grew colder and colder as I saw nothing but a few squirrels. I was carefully doing foot and leg movements to help stay warm. I was either in the fetal position or standing up and down. Given that I was moving, so much, to stay warm. I normally do not get cold and do not move much. I was hyper-vigilantly scanning for deer, so not to spook any. It was 10:30 a.m. when I spotted the buck at about 30 yards moving up the hill/rub line straight toward my stand. I immediately flipped the safety off and the steady walking/foraging buck looked up for about 2 seconds. He put his down continuing to walk closer. I positioned my gun almost into shooting position when he looked up again, and again I froze. I am positioned facing the tree, so the tree is helping to block me from being detected. As he started walking again, I aimed at the midline neck/shoulder area shooting almost straight down. After the shot he dropped straight down. I texted a picture from my stand of the buck to Austin at 10:33. I asked him, if he wanted to continue to hunt? He was excited about the deer and cold, so he walked over.
