2012 - The Leo buck

December 4, 2012 • Voyageur Press

Our family is like many in Northern Minnesota come deer opener. Generations congregate, families get together and memories are made.

Long before I was around, my mother’s side of the family practiced the art of the Minnesota Deer Opener, very similar to what we do now. My Grandma Moe would rise around 4 a.m., make a hearty breakfast (that included salt pork!), make bagged lunches, and get the “men folk” out the door long before sunrise.

Grandpas, uncles and cousins would then head to their favorite stand locations, until a certain time, and then the “drives” would start. If the hunting party was successful, the tough task of dragging the deer back to the farm site would begin.

Fast forward almost 100 years and the tradition is played out again. The differences between now and then are vast, yet basically the same. The weather forecasts, the clothing, the guns with optics, the 4-wheelers, the communication, the body heaters, are all wonderful improvements over days gone by. 

The deer hunting itself is still very similar. One can sit in a tree from dawn to dusk and hope a whitetail will walk by. Another favorite is to gather a large group of hunters and do “deer drives” and push the deer towards a nearby stander. Some hunters love to walk slowly through the woods and still hunt hoping to catch a deer unaware of the hunter’s presence.

I am a stand hunter. I spend a lot of time in the woods in October preparing for the upcoming season. I try to hunt areas that have a high doe population, as I know the bucks will usually follow in early November. 

As a stand hunter, I try to hunt dark to dark whenever possible. I see things I would never see anytime or anywhere else. I am always amazed at how much noise a grey squirrel makes compared to a 130 pound doe. I love to watch all the birds, including the nuthatches and chickadees. The blue jays are always screaming about something and more than once I have seen a deer emerge from the area they were yelling from. Red squirrels do really seem to hate grey squirrels. Bald eagles seem to talk to each other. A flock of crows chasing an owl through the woods is better than any car chase I have ever seen on TV!



On November 2, our family plan was to have a big dinner at my house, including my mom and dad, my son Kirby, my son Andy and his wife Stacy, Paula, me, Juliana and Wyatt. We had not all hunted together for almost six years and Andy was home on leave from the Navy to enjoy his first hunt in a long time.

Kirby’s wife Emily was expecting their first child on November 4, Paula’s and my first grandchild. But everyone thought she might have the baby late, so Kirby was hoping to be able to hunt and return to Grand Forks before the baby came.

On Friday afternoon, Kirby called and said he would not be able to make dinner. When asked why, he said Emily had gone into labor and they were headed for the hospital!

Throughout the Friday feast, we talked to Kirby several times with updates. Early Saturday morning, I called again and was told everything was fine, but no new news. My mother, Alice, followed in her mother’s footsteps and has been making the 4 a.m. breakfast since about 1961. We did have side pork!

Andy and I headed to our stands an hour before daybreak. At about 7:30 a.m., I saw a small 4-point walk by, his nose was to the ground and I passed on him. I saw a doe about 7:40 a.m., and at about 7:45 I heard a deer blowing and wheezing. 

A large deer was running toward me through the oaks. It had a nice rack and when it was about 100 yards away, it started running parallel to me. I missed a quick first shot, and the deer ran about another 50 yards and stopped. I took another shot through the trees and must have gotten a little forward on my rifle as the scope hit me between the eyes! My eyes crossed a little with the blow to the head, but I did not see anything move after the shot.

I was upset as I thought I had missed. My wife called almost instantly after the shot (although she was home) and told me there was some baby news. To be honest, I hadn’t thought much of the baby during the last few minutes, but quickly called Kirby. He was very excited and told me that they had had a baby boy. They named him Leo Kirby Graff. Baby and mother were doing fine.

I sat in my stand until noon, when I was to meet up with Andy if one of us had shot a deer. I walked over to the last place I had seen the deer and almost fell over when I saw the buck laying at the exact spot I had last seen him. He had fallen next to a log so I could not see him from my stand.

Andy came over and began to help me clean the deer. After we had gotten it out, Paula, Juliana and Wyatt along with Stacy came and took pictures.

The way I figured it, Leo was born almost the exact minute this deer was shot. I am getting the deer mounted to give to Leo, and long after I am gone, he can tell his friends and family, “My grandpa shot this deer when I was born!”