It took 17 days for Joe Blugerman to stop kicking himself for missing a bow shot at a mature 8-pointer in 2017.
Thirty-five years of hunting deer hasn’t made the man from Munith, Michigan, immune to buck fever, and he got a bad case of it on Nov. 8. Joe says it’s because the 4x4 took so long to travel the 80 yards between where he first saw it and where his arrow sailed wide.
Joe was upset, but he took pride in having lured the buck within range by bleating with his can call.
He had no qualms about taking his 20 gauge afield when the firearms season opened. He went to a ladder stand on Nov. 25, and the biggest buck he’d ever seen popped out of the ground at a quarter ’til 5:00.
He was looking the other way when the buck soundlessly appeared in front of him at only 25 yards.
“It was looking right at me,” Joe told Richard P. Smith, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “The first thing I did was close my eyes. I didn’t want to make eye contact.
“My gun was hanging in the tree next to me, and I didn’t dare move,” he continued. “I opened my eyes every five seconds or so, kinda squinting at the deer, and it kept looking at me. I opened and closed my eyes about 10 times.”
After realizing the deer wore a giant rack, wide and with a lot of points and mass, he stopped studying the antlers. Instead, he concentrated on staying focused, reminding himself of what happens when he loses it.
When the whitetail began angling away from him and its head became obscured by a tree, Joe reached for his shotgun. By the time he acquired the animal in his scope, it was at 35 yards.
Soon after the saboted slug tore through the 7 ½-year-old deer’s lungs, it died in a nearby river. Literally.
Joe waited for neighbors to bring chest-waders before trying to wade out to retrieve his deer. They were of little help in the deep water, however, so he stripped down to his underwear and waded back in with a rope.
Only after he pulled the deer to shore did Joe notice the rack’s distinctive drop tine. Not knowing was probably a good thing. He didn’t have time to count points before squeezing the trigger.
Final tally: 211 1/8 inches.
— Read Recent Blog! Public Land Yields One of Kentucky’s Finest in 2014: Hunter: Cody Likin | The antlers tally 201 inches.