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-

I will be contacting them individually to let them know when they can expect their prize.

Here are the winning photo entries:

Jeffrey's Dreamy Buck

Tony's Crown Buck

Many thanks to all who took the time to submit their photos. I will run it again next year. For a complete listing of all the deer photos submitted follow this link.

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!

This photo is a submission from, Chris, in Barrie, Ontario. The story surrounding this buck is very interesting. By ‘all rights’ it should have been harvested by another hunter.  Chris, had this to say about his bruiser,

“My brother had told me about a large buck he had seen while hunting – which he thought was a 10 pointer. Unfortunately, for my brother, he had seen the deer twice at close quarters but was unable to take a shot as the buck never gave him that opportunity.

Fortunately for me, 10 minutes after sitting down in my tree stand for the first time out this season, I took the biggest buck of my life with 12 points. This is my first buck with a bow and unofficially scored 143 1/4.”

This Barrie buck scored (unofficially) 143 1/4

Nice work, Chris! Thanks very much for sharing this photo with me.

Day 1 (Monday)
The frosty, cold morning provided dad a glimpse of a couple of moose and a noisy encounter with some grunting bucks that were just out of sight.

Our afternoon watches were the most productive. Kyle saw 4 deer while ground blind hunting on a hardwood ridge. None of them were shooters. I scared 3 deer away from my evening tree stand by taking that crucial first step onto the tree-stand’s ladder.  Size and gender were difficult to distinguish. No shots fired

There was some laughter at the supper table tonight. The reason is worth sharing here. The humorous story occurred while eating cereal before a morning hunt three years ago. By the time the last person had poured milk on their cereal, they noticed that there were three dead mice in the milk bag.

We think they were planted by PETA – but we have no proof.

No sign of the ‘big guy’ yet.

Day 2 (Tuesday)

A beautiful day led to a crispy, could night watch. The quiet forest shared no secrets except for two moose that dad saw again and 2 deer that Kyle watched for a few moments.

Dad and Kevin Heading Back To Camp

Day 4 (Thursday)
On my way to my treestand tonight, a cow and calf moose watched me take the memory card out of my trail cam. It was almost like they knew that deer were the platter of choice this week. Some time into my tree stand vigil, something spooked and ran ‘dead down wind’ from my stand. I never got to see what it was.

Kyle saw two fawns on Heartbreak Ridge. This was the sloped ridge where he got his first ‘crack’ at the Brow Tine Buck. His guest of honour never showed.

Howie spooked an unknown deer not far from his watch while attempting to move around a chain gate.

No bucks down yet.

Kyle's Brow Tine Buck seen last week

Day 5 (Friday)

A minor blast of winter overnight created some snowy conditions for us this morning. The north wind easily chilled our hunting party while we were at our watches. There were no sighting this morning – despite a frosty night.

We are noticing the frequency of scrapes increasing as the week progresses. Howie exchanged buck grunts with an unseen deer about 6 pm. Perhaps the rut will be here soon.

Our window of opportunity is almost over as tomorrow is our last full day of hunting.

Dad's snowy approach to my location

We were trying to determine if the game came picture, that was taken north of the ‘Moose Bones’ deer watch, held the image of a new buck in town.

The ten-pointer (photo right) has been classified as ABI (A Buck of Interest) and we are planning to intercept as the hunting week begins tomorrow. The op has been called ‘Buck Down’. I will be trying to blog (and tweet) each evening from our deer camp. Consider logging on and reading about our adventures as the week moves on.

The only hitch to Operation: Buck Down is that I managed to burn my index (and trigger) finger on the woodstove door. A significant blister will make using my bow impossible and my firearm painful.

Worth it.