2002 George's Buck

On November 5, 2002, I traveled to Iowa to meet up with Gene and Barry Wensel of WBL. For those of you that are not familiar with WBL, WBL is a club, made up mostly of traditional archers. Gene and Barry lease property in Iowa and Kansas. WBL is not a guided hunt. You hang your own tree stands, hunt when and were you want to in your assigned area, during your assigned week. WBL gives the hunter a place to hunt quality deer with the opportunity at a trophy.

I was bow hunting a 207-acre farm in Southeast Iowa. The North side of the farm has a river that runs east and west on its boundary. I set a treestand just east of a small strip of woods that runs east and west between a bean field on the South and the river to the north. This strip of woods connects two larger sections of woods on each side. My stand was on the south side of two trails that become one just before they entered the small strip of woods.

On the first morning of my hunt the wind was from the South, blowing my scent toward the trails I was watching. I hoped that my stand was high enough to keep my scent above the trails. The first trail was only eight yards in front of my stand, but the second trail was 22 yards in front of me. That morning at 9:00AM, two does came from the east heading down the trail located 22 yards in front of my stand. When the does got directly downwind of me they got wind of my scent. They then became concerned and after a few minutes, they slowly left going back the direction they came.

At 9:45 AM a large buck appeared very quickly directly in front of my stand. He was traveling down the same trail going in the same direction as the two does. I didn’t see this deer coming and I only had a few seconds to react. I was concerned that this buck may wind me and not give me a shot. I first had to be sure that this buck was a shooter. At first I was able to see his rack from only the left side through some thick brush. I could see 4 or 5 points on his left side, but when he stepped out and got in front of me, he turned to look in my direction showing off his very wide rack. When he turned his head to resume his travel, I quickly brought my Black Widow recurve into position and came to anchor. This is when I started to panic. That morning was cold about 17 degrees and I was wearing a fleece balaclava that covered my mouth. I was not able to feel my anchor point in the corner of my mouth and I did not have the time to make any adjustments. As I released the arrow I lost sight of it and as the Buck turned to travel directly away from me I saw the arrow, I hit the Buck in his left hindquarter. The buck left my sight traveling toward the river.

Because of my bad shot, I stood and listened for thirty minutes. Now it was 10:15 Am and I decided that the best thing to do was to give the Buck a couple of hours before I looked for a trail. I went to town, had lunch and came back with a friend to see if we could find a trail. Well, we found blood quickly and the buck only traveled 75 yards before pilling up at the bottom of a steep ridge along the riverbank. The Wensel Woodsman broadhead penetrated 16 inches cutting a main artery and breaking the leg bone on the opposite side. I field dressed my buck and that night after dinner six of us returned to get the buck up the river bank and out of the woods. The buck grossed 160 and weighed over 200 lbs.

Well sometimes even an old guy gets lucky.

George Kerastas

For information on joining WBL, contact Gene Wensel at genewensel@iowatelecom.net