Next Step Outdoors

By Aaron Olsen

Setting the Stage
My hunting progression has been different than most. Over the course of time, my expectations just slightly exceeded my skill level as a hunter. By the time I could consistently have encounters with spike bucks, I wanted to hold out for a five or six point even if it was the same age as the spike… Once I could consistently have encounters with those year and half old bucks, my eyes were already ahead of the natural progression…

Each of the last two years I had opportunities at two and a half year old bucks and elected to pass. I have plenty of opportunities to shoot does for meat so my criteria for bucks is “shoulder mount or bust”. While my heart still gets pumping when I have a year and half old buck walk right down the pipe, if it isn’t worth mounting, for me it personally isn’t worth taking the animals life. This year all of that changed and I capitalized on an encounter with a buck I would be happy to have hanging on the wall. Here is my story and I’m damn proud of it!! Enjoy!

November 3rd
After having a morning hunt blown up by another hunter on public land (he had every right to be where he was) I finally decided it was time to try a farm that my good friend Justin gave me permission to hunt. He had had plenty of encounters since the opener but still hadn’t connected with a buck he deemed worthy of wrapping his tag around its antler.

The property is made up of a river running north and south, with thicket-type bedding up and down each side of the river, and crop fields surrounding further East and West. It makes a great rut funnel as the bucks cruise the edge of the river moving from thicket to thicket scent checking for hot does.

The Game Plan
The next morning called for a rare East wind and with no preset stands set up for that direction, I was going to do a hang and hunt with my Lone Wolf tree stand. This was not a foreign concept to me as I had hung a stand on my way in to hunt every single sit since my mid-September trip to Missouri.

The plan was to come in from the West side of the river, cross, and hang my Lone Wolf in a tree right on the edge of the East side of the river. This would would make it impossible for any deer coming back to bed from the East crop fields to wind me. Normally, I video every hunt but almost two months of grinding was weighing on me physically and I validated my decision to leave the camera gear at home because I was crossing the river and there was a chance of rain so I didn’t want to risk getting it wet…

November 4th
The AM came and I executed the plan flawlessly. Before I could even get my outer layers on, there was a young deer below me in bow range. After about 10 minutes the deer moved off and I was successfully able to finish putting on my outer layers. Not long after legal shooting light, I texted Justin and asked him what time he normally starts to see deer movement and as soon as I clicked send, I looked up and spotted a group of does feeding North of me along the river. After a couple minutes the does spooked and ran out of sight.

Being November 4th, and knowing there is no way they caught my scent, I assumed (and really hoped) they ran because they were getting chased by a buck. My vortex binoculars hit my eyes and I immediately spotted a good buck in pursuit. My instant thought was, “shooter!” I began to question what to do… Do I sit tight and hope he chases one of the does by me or do I call? I let out two subtle grunts and to my dismay, he turned my way. I quickly lost sight up him but he reappeared on the same line of travel in the middle of the closet thicket. He paused and I ranged him at 65 yards. The point where I expected him to exit and present a clear shot was 40 yards away and my plan was to draw just as he stepped out and send an arrow when I had a clear shot. The buck ended up exiting the thicket on a different trail about five yards further away and my shot was blocked. It was a blessing in disguise.

The solid seven point continued my way and I gave him a “braaap” as he walked into my shooting lane. He stopped in his tracks and I released a Rage tipped Easton arrow. It found its mark. He donkey kicked and made it just out of sight before tipping over. The sequence of events was like a hunt you would see on TV. I couldn’t believe it. After years of preparing and putting in time, I had just arrowed my first buck and an absolute stud at that…

The First Call
The first thing I did was pull out my iPhone and record my immediate reaction. I wanted to have the ability to relive that raw excitement over and over. The last words out of my mouth in the video were, “I have to call my dad”, and I did just that. Even hundreds of miles apart I was still able to share that special moment with the man who introduced me to the great outdoors. I’m still riding the high of the experience and hope to have many more like it in the future!

Let’s take the Next Step together. Thanks for reading!

-Aaron

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