Brothers can make for the best hunting partners when things are meant to be. My older brother John took a shot at a doe just before the rifle season was about to start. She decided to jump the string on which was a very easy shot, causing a poor shot. To make a long story short we retrieved a 120 lb doe after 6 and half hours of hard trailing. John was feeling indebted to me so he insisted on trying to rattle out a buck in my favorite hunting area. I was not all that happy about the idea, but was convinced to try.

We drove for an hour, rode the four wheelers for another hour, then walked for 20 minutes. We crossed the river into the prettiest hardwood ridge you ever saw. Miles from any other hunters, we set up for a hunt neither of us would ever forget.

The wind was out of the northeast and it was the first really cool morning we have had. John found a hollow behind a rock and I continued up the ridge for another 60 yards or so. I just sat on a small fallen maple, I remember thinking how I was wasting my last Saturday before rifle season started and all that darn noise would soon begin.

When John hit the antlers together for the first time, I have to say my heart picked up a little. Thinking he would be mad if something did come and I was not ready, I nocked an arrow and found my release. I put on my face mask just in case. John had 2 different grunt calls and he was kicking the ground. To say he got into it would be an understatement. After a couple of minutes of the most noise I ever heard in the woods in my life, I was ready to go home. But I sat still, determined to give him a fair chance at something he had been wanting to try for a while. Another five minutes, which seemed like an hour, John started again. Only when he hit the antlers together this time, I saw a deer run across in front of me. It was moving fast but I did see antlers. They were small but a spike horn for sure. The deer stopped just as I thought we had spooked him for good and trotted back past my position at about 60 yards.

Then all of a sudden there was another deer not far from me. He was moving around trying to find John’s position, which was down over the ridge just far enough they could not see him. I didn’t move, not a muscle. By this time John had finished his rattling sequence leaving me with 2 deer at full alert. One to my left, the spike, and one to my right that I could still see. This one was about a 4 point buck and where I hunt either one is a trophy with the bow.

Well, believe it or not, I stayed that way, not moving for about five minutes. I had even closed my eyes and waited, fighting the urge to move my head to see how close the other buck was. Things got real interesting when John hit the antlers this time. Another buck was coming straight at me. He stopped behind a bush at 40 yards. The other two bucks, which I don’t remember seeing after this one appeared, was the shooter of the three. Well, John stopped rattling, with this buck behind this very small bush. We had agreed that I would come back to him when I was ready. I knew he would wait another five or ten minutes before rattling again and not abandon his position. So what to do? I could not last much longer in my position and this deer was foaming at the mouth and the hair on his back was standing up like a dog ready to fight. The blood had long since left my legs. I decided to move a little. The buck was looking past me for John, so ever so slowly I stood up and drew my bow, but the shot was just not ethical. I cursed that little bush and somehow let down without a sound.

Thinking quickly, I stuck my finger into my fanny pack which was partially open, and my finger found the end of my grunt tube and got it out without catching on anything or making noise of any kind. So I put the grunt to my mouth in super slow motion and grunted three times then spat it on the ground, hoping that my brother would hear and somehow just know I needed him to start another rattling session.

Remember, that I am still standing 40 yards right in front of this buck that is at full alert, with two more that I can’t see, but I know they are within 60 yards or closer. John heard the last grunt and his first thought was Dana must need noise. Unknown to me, he had seen flashes of the deer earlier in our little hunt. There I stood with my legs screaming to move for lack of circulation, when John cracked those antlers together really loud. My buck jumped into the air and landed at a long thirty yard shot down the best shooting lane available. I remember drawing the bow and hearing a noise, then a buck grunted right behind me, but I dared not look. I still wonder at the size of the unseen buck, which John heard grunt as well. I remember thinking thirty long, thirty long, over and over as I drew my bow and sighted. As to who punched the trigger on my thumb release I have no memory. I saw my arrow bury itself behind his front shoulder, I felt the hit was good. There were deer bolting in every direction but I focused on my buck only, which fled so fast it was hard to follow him with my eyes.

John heard the shot and when I saw him, I dropped to one knee and gave him the big fist pump of success, he knew what it meant. He came over and said the smack of my arrow was so loud he thought I had hit a tree. Seeing the deer go off the ridge, I knew I could look for my arrow, which I had seen fall out of the buck. It was soon recovered with about 18 inches of blood on the shaft, so we went to a tree stand not far away for breakfast. We waited 20 minutes, which seemed like an hour or more, then we went back to take up the trail which was not easy to follow at first. But knowing the area and the lay of the land helps a lot. At 75 yards, the trail got better, and at 100 yards, it was easy to follow.

Being so pumped, my buck went almost three hundred yards before he expired. When we got to him, John went to give me a high five but was so excited he ran me over like a truck. It took a while to take in what had just happened. We just sat there and exchanged points of view on what we had each seen and heard. We both agreed that the buck that remains unseen, was in all likelihood a monster. I thought the buck we got was a six pointer, but he was missing a hooker on one side. He is not the biggest I have taken with my bow, but because of the story, I have him mounted in my living room. It took me a while to write this story because of the unbelievable events that led up to the success of this hunt. I have a brother that believes every word. He was there and lived it with me. This was our first time rattling antlers. We have tried since with no luck, but we will try again, you can bet on it!

Dana Pierce

P.S do try this at home