Few deer hunters would trade big woods serenity and fresh air for the ambient noise of a nearby highway and a breeze tainted by diesel fumes. But one bowhunter from Fort Wayne, Ind., has learned that aesthetics have little to do with one’s chances of taking home a buck.
Wayne Leazier Jr. logs a lot of miles each fall in his quest for whitetails, mostly between home and southern Michigan. Give him a few days, and he’s going to watch his odometer spin en route to the deer woods. Give him a few hours, however, and he’s going to find a way to hunt much closer to home.
That’s what happened back on October 2005. Faced with a drizzly afternoon that didn’t involve masonry or construction, Wayne set out for a friend’s place in his own Allen County, a 150- to 200-yard wide strip of timber so thick it would’ve made beagles turn tail and run.
Even though he hadn’t hunted from it in a couple of years, Wayne had a treestand in the middle of those 30 acres, which back up ...