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It was the week of Halloween 08 and Matt, Tim, Ryan and I traveled to the Northwest Angle of Lake of the Woods, about 450 miles from the Twin Cities to Ontario, Canada. This is serious big buck hunting country!

Pictured below: Tim and his 9-point buck!

Tim’s Big 9-Point Buck

We had a little problem Saturday morning trying to get our hunting license, but once we found someone who would sell us a license, we quickly packed our boats and were on our way. The first day was simply scouting and putting up tree climbing stands.

The next day was windy as hell. With 40-mile hour sustainable winds and 50-mile gust (We did that last year and said we would never do that again). When the waves are bigger than the boat it’s time to get off the water! Instead, we went grouse hunting.

Later that evening, Tim shot a huge 9-point buck with his bow. We tracked it as far is we could but it started to rain and we lost the blood trail. We began the next morning looking for the deer from where we left off. I grabbed my shotgun just encase we jumped a grouse. Sure enough, one flushed and I shot. Feathers flew everywhere, but I couldn’t find it. I think I need to start using a bigger load?

While looking for the grouse, I found a little trace of blood on a heavily used deer trail. We moved our search up to where I found the blood and low-and-behold there layed the deer 30-feet away! If it wasn’t for the grouse, I’m not sure we would have found this deer.

I saw a lot of tracks and monster scrapes, but nothing huge came my way.

On Wednesday, the day before Matt and I left, I had a 4-point buck walk within 30-feet of me. I was in my tree at the start of a peninsula. I was grunting every half-hour and I’m sure he was curious to see who else was in the woods with him. I let this one go because I was in search of a mammoth deer. As you will see in my next Blog…it paid out, but not on this trip! Perhaps next year I will find a deer worth mounting?