The day before bow season started off the same way it has for the last four years~ I hop in my truck and make the two hour drive to my daughter Tara, and son-in-law, Brian’s house.  I look forward to seeing the grandkids, our traditional fish fry, and the camaraderie amongst family and good friends.  While hanging out around the campfire, we all talked about where we were going to sit that morning, and I decided to give the marsh a try.

An hour before shooting light, Brian and I were all set up and excited to see what the morning hunt would bring.  by 7:30am, we saw 3 does and 150 inch 10 pointer about 80 yards away. The does started making their way towards the Antler King Honey Hole food plot that I was sitting over.  I thought once the does started coming, it wouldn’t be long before the buck followed suit.  My heart was racing as I picked up my Z7 in anticipation of the big boy coming into range. The does gave me every angle to shoot but the mature buck stayed just out of bow range.  Little did I know this was going to be the theme of the rest of my bow season! Almost every time I went out, I would see a shooter, but they just wouldn’t make it into bow range!

Before I knew it, gun season had arrived.  I thought with the number of shooter bucks I saw during bow season, it would be no problem getting one on the ground opening weekend.  Boy was I wrong!  I saw a lot of deer opening weekend just no shooters.  Work obligations had me packing my things and making the dreaded two hour drive home.  That week went by really slow but finally I was on my way back Friday morning.  Friday night and Saturday morning were pretty uneventful but Saturday afternoon proved to be a different story.

Brian and I were set up in the Shack blind overlooking three different bedding areas surrounding a valley.  About 2:15pm, all ”you know what” broke loose!  First some does come trotting over a ridge in front of us heading to our right.  As I was trying to open the side window, Brian says “shooter in front of us!”  Things became extremely chaotic in the stand as I was trying to figure out where the buck is and maneuver to get in position to make the shot.  I finally get my cross hairs on him and squeezze the trigger on my Browing 7 mag.  Brian took the brunt of my excitement as I whaled on his arm saying “we finally did it!”  After hours and hours, day and days, buck after buck, in a matter of seconds, this buck come “Out of Nowhere!”

The biggest buck of my life scores 142″ as an 8 pointer.

Nate Vogelsang

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be hunting on day number 68 of the Wisconsin deer season and not have a bow buck on the ground.  During the summer months, we spent countless hours in our woods, clearing and planting Antler King food plots, checking trail cameras, and taking the kids “around the block” scouting to see what bucks were in the neighborhood.  We had a pretty good hit list for this year and I was excited for our bow season opener to get here.  I only got to hunt a handful of mornings because  Brady had just started kindergarten so we had to get him off to school and Jackie still stayed at home.  And let’s be honest, how many babysitters want to get up at 4:30am?   So that meant I would have to get it done during an afternoon hunt.  Well, day after day came and went and still no buck.  My chance finally came one cool afternoon while sitting overlooking our gravel pit food plot.  A really nice 10 pointer came in and I grunted him into bow range and my Passion bow was ready for her first opportunity at a buck.  The buck was on high alert from me grunting at him several times to stop and when my Muzzy tipped Easton left my bow, he completely ducked my arrow.  I sat there in the stand just sick to my stomach! There was my opportunity and I blew it!  The early bow season continued to fly by and it was time to hang up my bow and grab my Browing 270.  Well, it’s really not mine.  I borrow it from Brian’s cousin, Todd.  Still hoping Santa will bring me my own gun someday!

So it was the day before Thanksgiving and Brian had just popped up our Covert blind in some standing corn where Shelly and her dad had been seeing some nice bucks come out and feed in our Antler King Honey Hole food plot.  The weather was anything but ideal- cold, windy, sleeting, and rain! We got set up and in a matter of minutes we had a couple of fawns working their way towards us. And it wasn’t very long before a mature buck made his way to the food plot and fed 65 yards away from us! I had an itchy trigger finger and I wanted that buck but Brian told me to hold off- that there was a couple bigger ones running around.  A little while later Brian says “this is what we’re after!”  The big buck gets to within 150 yards and I let the Browning bark.  The kids were right across the street and Grandpa Herb and Grandma Dianne’s so we picked them up to help recover the deer.  The kids were so excited and Brady summed it up best “We’re having buck meat tonight. Yeah!!” 

A few days later I stopped at the neighbors to get permission to go recover a doe I just arrowed.  Jason told me that his daughter shot her first buck! I told them congrats and how happy I was for them.  Then he looks at me again and says” hey, you know that buck you shot…..we’ve seen him a lot in our woods and I have a bunch of trail cam pics for ya….we call him Super Freak!

13 points 150 1/2″

Tara Seiler