field Staff

Andy Hoover

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A Hunter's Tale - The Green Mile Buck

It all started one evening mid October 2004. After a summer and early fall of continuous rain, the skies finally opened and the sun came out. There was just long enough for me to get into a great hunting spot where I had seen some very nice bucks.

I was able to drive out to about one and a half miles from where my tree stand was.

My hunting buddy Wes and I began the long trek though the mud, and I mean MUD. It was a freshly turned field just after a solid week of heavy rain. It took a good while for us to get to the stand, but after a few short hours I see what I think is a very nice buck coming straight down a trail where Wes and I had hung my tree stand in early summer. I had hunted this trail before with a fair bit of luck.

My mind started to race, “try and get the heart rate down Andy,” I told myself, “ just calm down, remember all the practice Andy and just squeeze the trigger.” All the things we do to keep us from falling apart kept running through my head. I guess it worked and the arrow was finally on its way. I felt the shot was good, but still took some time to calm myself before getting down out of the stand. I said to myself, “You know the legs are not there yet. Andy, if you go too soon I don’t know if you can even walk yet, never mind trying to climb down out of a tree.”

I still needed to give the buck time to lie down. He made it out of sight and it was getting close to dark so I couldn’t wait too long.

Well now it was time to get down!

Wes and I started to track the buck. It didn't take long until we could see him in the light of the flashlight. We had him in our sights. As we walked up I saw that this could be the biggest buck I had ever shot and my heart rate began to climb again. After a few jumps up and down and a few handshakes, we looked to where the truck was parked and realized that the buck has run even farther away from the truck.                             

We began to drag him out. After just a few feet I realized I would need a rope so I walked all the way back to the truck to get one. While I was there I thought, "Just maybe I can get the truck just a little bit closer." After a bit of mud throwing, I realized that I couldn't get the truck any closer.

I got the rope and walked all the way back to the buck. Already out of breath, we wrapped the rope around the horns and started to pull. We got just about 50 or 60 yards and the rope broke and down we went, right into the mud.

The rope was old and had been in the truck for some time now. My buddy was looking at me thinking, “What are we going to do now?”

We lifted him by the horns and started our green mile.

We dragged this deer for two and a half hours. We could never get a good foothold to the ground. The mud was knee deep but eventually we did get there, and when it was all over and the buck was in the box of the truck, we agreed we would never do that again. We would only hunt that spot when it was dry and to this day we have never gone to that spot till it was good and dry.

We always say good things happen with hard work, well, this buck, after all the hard work, ended up being the biggest buck taken in Manitoba with a bow that year. He is now on my wall and I look at him with a big smile and a memory that I will never forget.

A big thank you to Wes for all the hours he gave me that night to get that buck home. We will forever call him "THE GREEN MILE BUCK."

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