Al and Jeff after a successful hunt

Living in Huntsville offers a little shorter hunting season compared to most deer hunting to the south of us. Once Dec 15/ 2010 had passed, I thought that was it. I had come to grips with the fact that 2010 just wasn’t my year. Well, that would all change after getting a call from Al Cavers.

Here it was the 2nd last day of deer season and my buddy Al and I decided we would giver one last try. Both of us had hunted pretty hard and we had seen a lot of deer throughout the season but the right opportunity for me, hadn’t quite presented itself. Al had harvested a deer a few weeks earlier and honestly, I thought my deer hunting days for this year were over.

Al lives down in Manilla Ontario, west of Lindsay Ontario and his deer season didn’t end until December 31. The purpose of Al’s call was to invite me to his place to hunt. He said that he had a couple of climbing tree stands and that he had permission in a couple of spots where there had been a lot of deer activity.

Al and I go way back. You know when you can say you have one, maybe two best friends if you’re lucky in a life time. Well, he’s one of those guys. He’s actually a brother! He’s a real bushman and he knows plenty about the outdoors and especially about hunting and fishing. So when you get a call from Al and he thinks we might have a good chance of getting something, you don’t hesitate. You get in your vehicle and go!

I arrived early in the morning on Dec 29th. We hunted all day in two different spots but came up short.

The next day Al had to leave. He and his family had to head down to southwestern Ontario but not before a last ditch effort morning hunt. So, there we were dragging our sorry butts out of bed at 4:30 AM, driving down a country road and hiking back into the bush in the dark. We hiked through the snow with our bows in our hands and bulky climbing tree stands strapped to our backs.

Now, I’ll be honest, I was a little skeptical about the whole climbing tree stand thing. After all, I had never used one before. I wasn’t skeptical about how they worked or if they worked. I knew they did. I just knew that picking the right tree meant picking one with minimal branches which also meant a tree without a whole lot of cover. I had been busted by deer in the past in situations just like that. In fact, that very morning as daylight fast approached a doe and two yearlings looked right up at me and I swear they grew wings. What ever it was I don’t know, they didn’t like something and in a flash they were gone.

Once again, I thought that was it. I sat down in my stand and not 20 minutes later in full morning light I heard what sounded like deer movement in the snow. I looked to my right and there he was just lightly feeding on small saplings. He began to move away from me and it was at that point I realized I forgot my grunt call. I don’t know if you’ve ever practiced grunt calling with your mouth. But it’s just typical. I can grunt call all day long using my mouth when I’m not deer hunting but stick me in front of a deer in that moment when it counts the most. Well, lets just say my grunt calls that morning weren’t the best.

Call it fate, call it luck, I might even have myself believe that my feeble attempt at calling turned that deer around. What ever it was, he did turn around and began heading my way. At first he approached directly towards me and that wasn’t good for a bunch of reasons, but mostly because there wasn’t a whole lot of ground cover between the deer and me. This can make it difficult to draw your bow. Just when I thought he was going to walk straight in on me he decided to take a little detour behind a small group of  standing cedar.

It was now or never. I took the opportunity to draw my bow. I held until he was open and broadside at about 15 yards. It was at that point after triggering my release, between the shaking and trying to draw a normal breath, I knew I had made a solid hit. After all, the WHACK sound was unmistakable.

How good of a shot was it, I wasn’t sure. Then I looked down at the snow. The red blood trail that followed him into the bush was proof enough that I must have made a good shot. After the shot, he ran and crashed through the bush and dropped at about 50 yards.  What a hunt!!

You want to talk about a celebration between friends. I’m 46 and Al is 45 years young. We’ve known each other since we were ten. It’s moments like that that make you thankful for great friends and thankful to God to be alive!

-Written and submitted by Jeff Dupuis-

So, I paused to take a quiet, deep, icy breath before I made my final approach to my ground blind.  Despite my best efforts to camouflage, reduce my scent profile and predict the wind direction there was nothing I could do about the crunching snow that plagued my every step.  All I could do was make a slow two or three step stalk along my newly cut trail.

The buck on game cam 2

I had only placed game camera #2 on the north corner of my 2-acre property a few days ago.    A deer trail exists here that extends in to the surrounding 900 acres of forest encircling my home. It became a back-up plan to the recently completed rifle season for deer on the family acreage in another location. Cameras there shot some footage of some large bucks, but none were seen during legal shooting hours.

Our redeployed game cam captured an 11-point (with a slight lobster claw) buck walking along the deer trail in my back yard for 2 straight days – just before legal shooting time ended. Which created the reason to create a small ground blind and the inspiration for my noisy stalk.

Finally, I reached a large pine tree that would shield the parts of my body that the freshly-cut evergreen wall in front of me would not. After doubly checking the broad head on my arrow, I knocked it into my compound bow’s drawstring and began ‘the wait’.

The cold wind began to work on the layers that protected my body’s core, but I smiled knowing I was downwind of game cam #2. Confident with my set-up, I grunted twice on my buck call and began to scan the forest in front of me.

Within 20 minutes, I started to hear the subtle steps of a deer. The hard snow was the only thing that helped me pick her up early. By the time I saw the doe, she was 35 yards north west of me.

Immediately, I wished I was 20 feet up in the air. I could tell she sensed that something was not quite right. Her pace slowed and every step was accompanied by numerous ear twitches and looks in my direction. Fortunately, the pine tree beside me was large enough for me to hide behind except for my knocked arrow and a portion of my bow. This was not a play from The Drury playbook.

She allowed to me to watch her for 20 minutes as she closed within 20 yards or me. I could hear her breathing in the cold air that was now starting to creep beyond the shell of my hunting coat and black fleece. For 5 minutes I watched helplessly as she profiled a full broad side shot at 20 yards.

I did not have a 2010 doe tag.

Suddenly – her head snapped back behind her.

What happened next is not clear. I think I moved too quickly from behind my pine tree cloak to see what caught her attention behind her. At that moment, she stomped her front foot and ran back in the direction she came. My cover was blown.

Somewhere, just behind her and just out of reach of game camera #2 (and a shivering bow wielder), a large buck snorted, wheezed and ran straight north into a shower of brown pine and spruce needles with a pinch balsam.

He was never seen on camera #2 until 7 days later – under the cover of a silvery moon. The kind of moon that comes out after bow season ends.

It all started (innocently, I should add) when dad and I were taking our deer to the butcher. When we walked into the front section of his ‘processing’ facility, I noticed some large deer heads mounted to the wall. I pointed at the biggest deer and asked where that one was shot. To my amazement, the butcher/hunter said he got it here on his farm. I was amazed because his farm is a very short distance from my own home. While the butcher told me the rest of the story, a small little dog ran between my ankles and on to the lap of a sitting women. I took a quick look down at the brief distraction at my feet and then, returned my attention to the final moments of the butcher’s deer story. He finished by saying,

“…and there is another one just like him running around your house.”

At that point, the lady on the chair said,

“His name is Thor.”

I thought to myself that is a great name for a monster buck and I began to think of ways that I might be able to catch-up with Thor during the final weeks of the 2008 deer hunt.

Then, the lady said,

“If you happen to see Thor running out by your place…

I finished her statement by saying,

“I’ll be sure to fire a ‘volley’ at him if it’s still hunting season!”

The lady was taken back by what I had just said as she cuddled her little dog closer to her chest. The dog barked, wagged his tail and ran off out the door. Fortunately, she laughed and smiled at me as she yelled to her dog,

“Don’t go too far Thor.”

This photo is a submission from, Trent, and he shares the story behind this elusive buck:

“His 26 1/2 in inside spread made him hard to miss when he appeared during daylight hours. I saw him about five or six times over a couple of years. Always just out of range or just out of season.”

An Elusive Ohio Buck

I am glad you finally connect with this buck Trent. Thanks for sharing this photo with us!

Whether, it was the bolt or the deer that triggered the camera (had to be the deer) this kind of photo (click photo for larger view) racks up some confidence in a Spypoint Camera.

The view from the 2nd shooter: a Spypoint ir-c camera

After seeing this photo, I wondered how infared sensors worked. I ‘googled’ the topic and found several articles regarding their function. A quick scan of 2 articles I read (Article 1 and Article 2), shared that the sensors worked by being able to detect changes in temperature within the detection zone of the sensor. How that actually works was not clearly said.

It would appear that more expensive cameras tend to have better sensors. This rewards the user with less ‘mis-fires’ and an increase in detection range.

The After Shot - Allen and his Renfrew County Buck

This photo is a submission from, Allen, after some brief emails, he shared portions of this deer’s story,

“I was lucky enough to see that deer again last week. Here’s the story. I named him “lucky” after I saw him on the trail camera. He was my screen saver for a month. The next time I saw him was last week. I was lucky enough to get a shot at him from my crossbow and even luckier that my trail camera happened to take a picture of that shot. Taxidermist estimated him at 150 give or take… photos are from a spypoint ir-c camera I just bought this year – looking at the pictures is almost as fun as hunting!”

Lucky - A Renfrew County Buck

This photo is a submission from, Brian, and although the smiles in the photo speak for themselves, Brian shares that,

“He is the biggest deer I have harvested and I had been chasing him all season.”

A nice Alberta Buck!

I think I need to move to Alberta Brian!! Thanks for your photo.