September 2010

Christopher Kuncaitis

This month’s featured buck was shot by Christopher Kuncaitis while hunting in Northern Michigan. Northern Michigan spells big woods to me so I was pleased to read his success story and wanted to share with you how he outsmarted this big bruiser. In the big woods, you have to be open to employing any tactic necessary to get yourself in the right place at the right time. Hal calls it two points connecting. This old boy had love on his mind. He was chasing a doe when he ran up the hill and came by Chris' carefully placed blind. Pre-season scouting provided him with the information needed to be in the right place. Experience told him to be there before daylight and be prepared for any action that might happen. That experience had him in there at the right time. As always, a little luck doesn't hurt either. Practice/preparation can also included playing out different scenarios while in your stand and helps you to react correctly when the situation heats up and you have a split second to kill a big buck. The Big Woods Bucks team congratulates Chris on his trophy and wishes him good luck on the trail this Fall.

Chris Dalti
Big Woods Bucks

This hunt took place on November 15^th, and I was hunting in my usual spot in northern Michigan. It was a very cold and crisp opener, and I was ready! This year I had observed a large rub line following an old logging road that passed near my ground blind. I made sure I was in my blind for a good 30 to 40 min. before light to let the woods calm down before shooting hours. I had put out some “Buck Stop” doe in heat downwind off the corner of my ground blind as an experiment. I had an opportunity at a nice 6 pointer at first light but he moved off over the ridge behind me before I could get off a shot. As I was sitting there pondering my missed opportunity at around 7:50 a.m. I heard what sounded like a freight train coming from my left and from up the hill behind me. I looked over to see a large doe being chased by what was definitely a shooter. I didn’t catch but about 2 seconds of him when he put on the brakes and stopped on a dime directly down wind of my “Buck Stop” at about 100 to 110 yards. This area being a large hardwoods stand, of course thanks to Murphy he stopped behind some large Maples and all I could see was his hindquarters. I immediately started my “bargaining” with God, “Please just let him step out and let me pop him!” Well after what must have been about 3-5 min. and seemed like a year he took off running full tilt again after the Doe and all I could do was hold in the first opening, resting my 300 Win mag on the side of the dead fall blind. I told myself to “Squeeze” as I saw the first tine enter the opening and I did. I had always heard and read about the time lag from your brain telling you to pull the trigger and when the bullet actually arriving being longer than one thinks and being as much as a deer length depending on speed and distance. Well, as he ran off with little or no reaction to the shot and disappeared below a ridge line 50 yards from where he was I decided I had better keep my end of the “bargain” described above. The doe he was with came back a few minutes later and stood at the ridge line stomping her hoof and blowing. Eventually she stomped off down the hill on the other side and it was the last I saw of her.  So after reading 20 chapters of Job from the Old Testament (Do you have any idea how long that takes with the potential of a trophy waiting for you?). I got up and went to where I shot. NO BLOOD! And then the desire to panic set in, I had watched closely the path he took over the ridge and walked down the line he ran and as I stood there wondering if I should have shot later and had missed I glanced to my left and not 15 feet from me laid the largest Whitetail I had ever shot. Not just his 9 Point tall tined Rack, which is my largest to date (9.5” G2’s), but also the body of this deer was extremely large. Well, after hanging him for a week on the buck pole we took him down to head home and decided to weigh him and he was just under 200 lbs (should have weighed him right away) .