By Dave Livingston

It was a cold day in November with only three days left in the Manitoba bowhunting season. There was only about a half hour of hunting light left when out of the bush about a half mile away comes the buck I've been trying to get with my bow all season. Well, that's not completely accurate, but he was a nice buck none the less. I've had about 6-10 deer within ten yards of me heading for a grain spill at a seed plant close by. I had been watching this small herd of deer for quite a few days. It had just recently got down to the minus 20s Celcius(-5 F), that's when these northern deer really start looking for something to eat. The cool temperature coupled with the deep snow make a seed plant with leaky pipes a very good feeding area for them.

I had formulated a blind very close to where the deer were walking and near spot where they stop to dig around in the alfalfa. It was with great sorrow when waiting for this buck that I had not constructed some place that would give me cover to take my jacket off when the deer got near me. I was in such a rush to build this blind and get hunting I forgot that being out in the cold for a while can do funny things to ones' muscles. Because of my shooting style I can not wear too many clothes to shoot my bow. Sitting out there, in just my shirt, waiting for this buck had me nearly numb and questioning my ability to draw and steady my bow if the opportunity arose.

I shoot a recurve bow from Darryl Broszeit . For the draw weight of only 62 pounds it shoots incredibly flat, a real bonus especially now. Due to an eye injury a couple of weeks previous I had to affix a sight to my bow. When your used to pulling back and letting fly instinctively, you realize how heavy your bow is when you have hold it back long enough to get your sight settled on something.

Anyway this buck hangs up about 150 yards away. I was looking at him through my binoculars trying to field judge him and also trying to figure out what was holding him up. With shooting light becoming a very precious commodity and a decent buck now about a hundred yards away digging up alfalfa in the field, I was starting to wonder if I might get skunked again this year. I have this nasty habit of saying "its too small" until the season ends and then wondering all winter why I didn't shoot the first deer that gave me the opportunity. So with about 5 minutes left in which I could legally loose an arrow the buck finally decides that the smell of the does that went by half an hour ago was too much to resist and all of a sudden he's coming up the trail at a fast trot. He stops a few yards away sensing something isn't right. That's the end of that story.

Walking up to him as he lay on the ground I understand as many hunters do why we pass up other deer; I'm not sure I like to kill things but I hate to quit hunting.

A trophy is not so much in the size of the horn, but under what circumstances the animal of choice was taken. This to me was not a trophy animal, it came too easy. I think now I should have taken the doe which I had stalked to no more than ten yards, that was a challenge. Most of the best hunts in my life have been hunts in which no animal had given its life, and I come away with better understanding of the nature of the beasts I pursue. I don't mean to sound that I don't shoot animals, wild meat is what my family and I live on all winter, I do however very much appreciate the animals that give their lives to feed us.