My next darting attempt was kind of a fluky chance, but I made good on my opportunity. We had scouted a recent clear-cut and established that a bachelor group of bucks was hitting a soybean field on the other side. After waiting a few days for a good wind, James and I scaled trees within about 60 yards of each other covering as many trails as we could. We weren’t sitting long before I could see a good 8 pt. meandering towards us. Unfortunately, he took the one trail in between us that was beyond our effective ranges (about 20 yards, after that….a crapshoot!) When he hit the soybeans, our scent was carried straight out to the buck, but instead of charging away he wheeled right back into the woods…right under my tree! A quick grunt paused him in mid-stride and the dart hit home. Moments later, I had buck #2 on the ground. He got his name because the usually hasty ‘wake-up’ drug took over 3 hours to rouse him from a deep slumber…hence the name.

I’ll never know what happened to him though. He was an interesting deer that had 2 completely distinct home ranges. His collar was dragged into a local yard by a pet dog and returned to us at the Farm. There was no indication whether the deer had died or the collar had simply fallen off the buck somehow.