2013 - Buck story still good in April
This buck story almost got away... and it’s never too late to share memories of fall.
April 16, 2013 • Voyageur Press
John Mirsch still recalls opening day this year (2013). Just hours into the season, and John shot a nice 18-point buck near Lawler that scored 160 1/4 according to the Boon & Crocket scoring system.
That opening morning, John heard Layne and Lance with their 4-wheelers out behind the house. He figured the afternoon hunt would be no good there after they’d been back there tearing around. It was just a few weeks prior, John’s sister-in-law Julie had told him that she had seen a huge buck with a huge rack near their home.
The story kind of just went in one ear and out the other.
John decided to venture out for the afternoon hunt and sit behind the old turkey barn on Dick Ukura’s homestead, originally purchased in 1897 by John and Kaisa Ukura, near Lawler.
His deer stand is not quite what you’d imagine. It’s just a plastic chair sitting up against the wall on the west side of the steel barn. Hidden by a couple small birch trees, the chair is somewhat camouflaged.
John had been sitting for about an hour. At 4:00 he spotted two does coming up over a small hill about 125 yards out. He thought about taking one to fill the freezer, but just before he pulled the trigger, he saw the tip of antlers appearing over the hill.
It was a trophy!
John took a couple shots before gathering his thoughts together and telling himself, “Calm down, calm down.”
Then with another shot the buck was down.
John’s wife Jodie had been attending the craft sale at the McGregor School when John called her. She didn’t answer so he tried calling Jodie’s daughter Lacie. She answered and told her mom that they needed to go right away and that John got the “big one.”
John didn’t win the Big Buck Contest at Jackson’s Hole but brought the buck there anyway to be weighed and share his tale. The buck weighed an impressive 204 pounds and the locals were very interested to see what the buck would score officially. The rack actually had 26 points, but only 18 that measured one inch or longer.
The net typical score according to the Boon & Crocket system came to 160-1/4 which is quite impressive. Anything over 150 is a really nice score. The rack had a wide spread of 20-7/8”. Dan Petrick of Palisade did the scoring and John had the buck mounted by Rick Doty of Aitkin.
John had always been on the hunt for sheds and believes he has the sheds for this buck that he found three years ago. He figures the sheds were from the deer at two and a half years of age and figures the buck to have been five and a half years old when it was harvested.
I have to say that when I placed all the sizable bucks into the paper during hunting season, I never really thought about the fact that every buck comes with a story. A story that the hunter will never forget. It may be April, but it makes me excited again for November!