She grunted at the buck, which momentarily stopped but then continued walking south and out of shooting range. 23 Bayli saw the animal live for the first time. The couple's persistence started to pay off. Kevin and Bayli, who are both Wisconsin state employees, took additional vacation days to try their luck. Weeks passed with no sightings or photos when, bingo, in mid-October the buck was captured again on a trail cam on the five acres along the river. Deer don't get to be 6½ or 7½ years old (as Hector was estimated to be) without excellent survival instincts. The buck could have moved to another area, of course. "All we knew he was the biggest any of us had ever seen," Kevin said.īut when the crossbow and archery seasons opened in September, Hector vanished. It was the kind of whitetail that causes hunters to lose sleep. This year reports of Hector began to crop up in summer and in August Kevin and Bayli obtained trail cam images of the buck near their treestands.
"It's really awesome they want to share and help everybody." "We've gotten texts with trail cam images of bucks from people who live more than a mile from our hunting spot," Kevin said. To top it off, the neighboring landowners are extremely friendly and have cultivated a spirit of cooperation among the local hunting community, Kevin said. It's small and hard to access but includes a narrow band, or funnel, along the river that is heavily used by wildlife. They especially like to hunt on the parcel owned by Bayli's father. Kevin and Bayli are avid deer hunters who dedicate a large portion of their time each year to scouting and hunting.
Then he climbed 25 feet up, double-checked his safety harness and began the waiting, watching and listening bowhunters know so well. He stashed the canoe on a grassy shore and quietly walked 50 yards to the big oak that held his tree stand. But even after two consecutive sunup to sundown sits without a shot he was determined to see what this day would hold. Kevin knew rain was in the forecast and he might have just ruined his chance at the big buck. But there is also one universal truth: you can't succeed if you don't go. There are thousands of variables when it comes to hunting. Now it was possible Kevin spooked the deer right out of the gate that Thursday morning. The 13-pointer had been documented on trail cameras for at least the last couple years in southwest Trempealeau County.Īnd both Kevin and his wife, Bayli, had seen the buck in October while bowhunting on the five-acre parcel owned by Bayli's father.
"Him" referred to a massive white-tailed deer locals nicknamed Hector. "I thought 'that might have been him,'" said Kevin, 32, retelling the hunt Friday. Then corn stalks rustled as it ran for cover in an adjacent farm field. With white-tailed deer activity at a high level as the rut, or breeding season, neared its peak, the last week of October was Kevin's favorite time to be in the Wisconsin outdoors.īut as he glided toward shore he heard two sounds that made his heart sink.Ī deer snorted to the west. In fact as he paddled his canoe across the river to reach his hunting stand, he was in favor of all the stealth he could muster. Not that Kevin Christorf of Abbotsford minded. And a thick overcast sky, with rain likely on the way, muffled this day's first light even more. The bluffs to the east always delay the sunrise anyway. 28 along the banks of the Trempealeau River in western Wisconsin.
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