How’s my archery season going? That’s a good question. I would say it’s up and down. I go up into the tree stand and I come down from the tree stand with my buck tag still in my pocket.  

Early in the season I didn’t hunt much. The weather was a huge part of that. Instead of spending time sweating and fighting off black gnats, I went musky fishing. I do have a couple of great stories from the boat but those are for another day. It’s deer season and I need to stay focused.

I can sum up the season so far with my experience with one particular buck. A lot of trail camera bucks end up with some sort of moniker, especially the ones that show up frequently. Everyone has a “Big Eight” or “Splitter” on their cameras. One of my frequent visitors is a buck that has a split brow tine on his right side for a total of six points on that side. His left side is palmated like a moose antler and three points extend out from that sort of like moose fronts, if you’re familiar with that term. He’s an interesting buck and probably deserves a name.

Now up to this point, I had not seen this particular buck in person. My only experience had been through trail cameras. As I slowly built a small inventory of photos the more intriguing he became.  

There are two reasons for a buck’s rack to be so jacked-up. One cause is genetics. His father could have sported a janky rack and passed on that trait to his sons. The other cause is injury. An injured buck’s rack will often develop some sort of deformity. Some theorize that it happens because an injured buck will use his resources and energy to heal and recover instead of supporting antler growth. When this deformed rack occurs, the injury is on the opposite side of his body in relation to the deformed rack. Either way, the buck was interesting no matter how or why his antlers grew the way they did.

That brings me to my last time out in the tree stand. Not much was happening and the conditions weren’t conducive to a big action night. For that reason, I was surprised when this deformed racked buck stepped into the harvested bean field to the south. I had my binocs on as he walked towards me. Each step brought him closer and I could see immediately that the limited trail camera photos did not do him justice. He was a mature, big bodied deer with the unique rack to boot. Certainly he had the look of a buck that could qualify him for my precious tag.

The countdown began as he closed the distance: 60 yards, 50 yards, 40 yards. At this point he turned to my right and was perfectly broad side and then he quartered away from me. At 30 yards he stopped and looked directly away from me. It was the moment of truth. I was in perfect position to send one right into the boiler room and then I realized that I was more on the fence than I thought. I let him walk. When he eased his way into the woods it became official - his name is now “LUCKY.”

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