2013 - Hunter needs help from mom

November 26, 2013 • Voyageur Press

Floodwood head boys basketball coach Chris Tommila bagged his buck this year—a nice 10-pointer weighing 202 pounds—thanks in large part to some helpful phone calls from his mother, Susie Norlund.

Chris shared that he chose not to hunt this past Wednesday before work. “Then my mom calls and tells me there is a big buck in the field with a doe,” recalls Chris. “I went out there to find only a small 8-point and a doe. I assumed she thought the buck looked bigger in the sun.”

My mom said no, there was a different one and it bedded down in the brushline.

Chris left and it was later confirmed by two people who also saw it standing in the field at 7:15 a.m. So Chris headed back on Thursday where he saw a couple small deer, but no buck.

He went back Friday and saw a spike, a doe and two fawns, and still no buck. “I no more than walked in the house, poured a cup of coffee, and the phone rang,” Chris shared. “It’s my mother again. I knew exactly why she was calling.”

“The big buck is back and it is about 150 yards from the pole building with two does,” she said. “They walked out two minutes after you left.”

She told me I wouldn’t be able to drive down the driveway because of their location. When I arrived, the next big challenge was getting to my gun which was in the loft of the pole shed.

“So I parked near the highway and walked into the yard and they saw me! I had to back up and crawl on my belly in my slippers about 75 yards to get to a treeline, then crouch/walk behind wood piles to the pole building 125 yards.”

Once inside the pole building, Chris caught his breath and waited until it turned broadside and shot. It fell on the spot.

“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” concluded Chris, “and.... I have a mother that wakes up at the crack of dawn that I would like to thank.”