Hi My name is John Chapman I live in the state of Michigan, Calhoun county, I have bow hunted for 22 years, The buck is my 1st taken with a bow, I have taken deer most of my hunting life but this story is just dumb luck, My son had shot a 4 point on October 4th of 2001, When Saturday (10/06/2001) came around he wanted it cut up the deer. I prepaired the Garage for butchering the deer, Late Saturday afternoon after we got the deer cut up My son had Talked me into going out that Saturday afternoon, At first I was not going to go, I was cold from being in the garage most of the day Saturday but decided what the heck and so I went and took out my scent lock suit from my scent bag.

My son and I walked out about a mile into the woods he decided to set in the same spot he shot his 4 point, He was sure there was another buck in the area, Since he sat there I told him I would set on the other end of the woods, I walked over to a spot I had seen a buck the previous year, it was down next to a river that borders up against a marshy type swamp that has a ridge line that banks the river with mature acorn trees, Well as I walked into the woods to the log I usualy sit at I looked behind me to see someone had pitched a tent, My first thought was great I walk out here a mile into the woods to find someone living in a tent, theres bound to be no deer in sight. I get on the 2 way radio call me son to tell him what was over here and I was moving south of my spot and the tent about 100 yards, That would put me at the very beginning of the tree line and the ridge, it also is at the coner of the swamp. I sat there for about 25 minutes watched the sun go behind the top of the trees, I was setting on the ground and did a couple grunt calls still thinking I was wasting time in this spot,

I then stood up it was then abot 6:30 in the evening the wind had been strong all day and was now dying down, I did one more grunt call started to reach for the radio to tell my sone to head back home and then I heard a noise to my left out popped this buck from the thicket of the swamp, I stood there not really scoping out his rack but ony trying to figure out which path he may take, Between myself and the deer was a large oak tree, it helped to hide me and as the deer took a couple more steps I thought he may come up to the left of the oak tree because he had disappered from my site a few seconds I drew back waiting for him to round the tree, he did not, I then let back off my bow and noticed he had turned to the right of the tree giving me a full broad side shot of him at 15 yards I pulled back locked into position then repositioned again trying to make sure I had my point set. I Then released the shot saw the deer jump and run as he ran away from me I could see the arrow had been placed into his side, He crashed back into the thicket and I heard him stop for a moment and started crashing again. I called my son on the radio to head over to my spot, We gave the deer 30 minutes and decided to go after the blood trail, we walked into the thicket and went maybe 30 yards to find the deer laying in a small creek dead. he apparently had tried to run and jump over this creek but did not make it. As we pulled him out I was amazed at the size of his neck and body I started counting his points and he was a nice mid size 9 point.

After we got him dressed out I took him to the meat locker the next day and he dressed out just under 180 pounds. I guess it just goes to show you Deer can be found in the strangest spots and when you least expect it. The other twist to this story is my son had talked me into using one of his Nugent blades that he used to kill his deer, I placed the blade on one of my arrows and it was the one that dropped him, I thought that was pretty good for this being the first time I had even shot my bow this year. I put this one in the book as just dumb luck since I knew I was going to be in for rough time hitting anything from the lack of practicing all year.

I think my son was more excited about that fact he had talked me into going out and using one of his Nugent blades to harvest this deer. I sent him back to the house to get the 3 wheeler while I dragged the deer to the 2 track. I did take the deer into my taxidermist and he was amazed at the Deers neck size for this time of the year. I can not wait to get him back to Place on my wall. Yes I gonna place the Nugent blade next to him, After seeing what that blade did to the 4 point my son took and the amount of blood my deer lost I am now hooked on using them for any bow hunts I do in the future. See even Dads can learn some hunting tips from their sons, I am just proud to see him love hunting as much as I do and knowing he will continue to do so as long as I have, and hopefully teach his children to do the same.

Sincerly John Chapman