It was an unusually warm day for early November with temperatures rising into the low 60’s. There was a stiff wind at 15-20 MPH. The sun was hot and I was hunting an area I have never hunted before. A friend had told me where to go from his past experiences on the land. So off I went with his directions back packing my API climbing tree stand along with my Parker bow.

I trudged a few hundred yards into the swampy marsh grass and found some small trees that I could climb right off of a major trail that looking like a cattle trail; trampled in the mud. The trees were small in diameter most around 4-6 inches.

I quickly put out some Mrs. Doe Pees doe in estrus in front of me at 10 yards. Once I attached the tree stand and climbed up even though I was only about 12 feet up. I had plenty of cover around me with all the small trees surrounding me. I only had a couple shooting lanes and couldn’t create any more due to the laws in Wisconsin prohibiting the cutting of any limbs or damaging any trees. It does make tree selection much more difficult though.

Everything was moving in the marsh with the wind whipping through. After about 30 minutes I began to grunt. After a short sequence of 3 quick grunts I waited for a 15 minutes and tried it again this time throwing in a couple of doe bleats too. This was rewarded when a young 10 point buck came strolling by 10 minutes later. He was a good looking young buck. He was good flat main beams but wasn’t very tall yet as he was probably only 1 ½ years old based on his body size. He had the makings to be a great buck as he already was carrying a split brow tine. He walked steadily down the trail with the wind. I decided to pass on this buck in hopes of a bigger one.

I sat quietly as to not tip off my location and was hoping another buck would be following the younger buck through the marsh. About 15 minutes later I noticed some movement ahead of me on the downwind side of the trail and stretched to see what it was through all the brush. Then he appeared. A beautiful 10 pointer was heading right down the trail into the wind. I was hoping that he wouldn’t wind me as I was only 12 feet off the ground.

He kept coming on a steady pace through the marsh. He was definitely on a mission to find a receptive doe as the bucks were now on a full scale search for does. The rut was starting to kick in as we had shined many deer starting to follow does but not run them as of yet.

As this lone buck proceeded to my location I could see he was a nice buck. He had five nice points on the left side and four points on the right. He also had a split G2 for a total of five points on the right for a grand total of ten points. He had good tine length but not a large spread measuring only at 15 ½ inches.

I decided he was an excellent buck for the bow and decided to take a shot. As he got closer he saw me and looked directly at me. Now stopped at 10 yards and looking directly at me I could feel my heart racing hoping that he would soon look away. Then suddenly he looked down the trail as if something else was down there and started walking again.

Then I drew back and he saw me again but then it was too late as my Gold Tip arrow with my Muzzy broad head buzzed down into him. He traveled only 30 yards as I watched him fall over. I then tried regaining my heartbeat back to a normal pace as it was racing from the excitement of seeing this magnificent animal move about.

I then climbed out of my tree to see the beautiful animal as it lay so peaceful on the ground before me. I said a quick prayer being thankful for my harvest and admiring him as I lifted his head up. He was a beautiful animal and was taken with great respect. He was a wary animal but his time was up and I am grateful to harvest such a beautiful creature.

This may not have been a prototypical hunt but none the less was successful. Sometimes just using knowledge learned form years of hunting and learning from others you can formulate a quality hunting plan by using the terrain and whitetail knowledge to set yourself up for success. Knowing that this was the early stages of the rut and the does were yet to be bred knew the bucks would be covering large areas of land searching for the first receptive doe. Most bucks in this area were supposedly bedding in the marsh and coming into the agricultural fields in the evening, I knew I could have a good setup in the marsh off of a well used trail.

So don’t be intimidated to hunt new areas just think things through before you go out and setup your stand. Think of the time of year, where do the bucks and does bed and feed, and where are the main travel corridors? If you can answer most of these you should be setting yourself up for success.