How My Family Took 7 Vermont Bucks in a Single, Unforgettable Season

This story, “Luck of the Willeys,” appeared within the December 1967 challenge of Out of doors Life.

Daybreak of November 12, 1966, opening day of the Vermont deer season, discovered me mountain climbing up the wooded aspect of Bigelow Mountain in northern Lamoille County. The same old anticipation and pleasure of this red-letter day have been fizzing round inside me however, because it turned out, what was in retailer for my companions and me was past my wildest hopes.

Deer searching, among the many Willey clan, is a household affair, and there are sufficient of us in order that we had Bigelow Mountain fairly nicely surrounded that morning. My brother Don and my brother-in-law Invoice Curtis Jr., alongside together with his father, Invoice Curtis Sr., have been with me close to Eden Lake. My father, Harold Willey Sr., and my brothers Dave and Dale have been strung out to the south towards Wolcott.

So as to add a little bit background to our group, I’m 35 and married, and I’ve 5 youngsters. I work on building wherever there’s a bridge or a street to be constructed, a lot of the time I’m solely residence on weekends to hunt and fish. My father, Harold Sr., 63, was a dairy farmer for a few years. He’s retired now, however he works part-time on the fireplace tower on Belvidere Mountain.

My brother Dale, 27, drives a truck for the American Oil Firm. He has two children.

Brother Dave drives a truck for Redi-Combine Cement. He’s 24 and has one daughter. Don, 22, is single. He works for United Plane in Hartford, Connecticut. Roger, my youngest brother, is 14 and a freshman at Newport Excessive Faculty.

Invoice Curtis Sr., 63, is a mason, and Invoice Curtis Jr., 31, is an electrician. Invoice Jr. has a son and lives in Newport, Vermont. Dave lives in Hyde Park, Don lives in Newport, and Dale lives in St. Johnsbury. The remainder of us name Lowell, Vermont, residence.

On this opening morning of deer season, Don and the Curtises got here to my home for breakfast. The remainder of them met at my father’s place. Quickly after stoking up on some rib-sticking grub, Don, Invoice and his father, and I drove a number of miles to the Boy Scout space close to Lake Eden. The remainder of the household drove on to the south the place they crossed Wolcott Department and headed up Bigelow Mountain from the opposite aspect.

Everyone knows this space nicely as a result of we spend most of our spare time within the woods — searching, and fishing the backcountry streams and beaver ponds for trout.

We knew deer have been plentiful right here, too, as a result of we’d seen numerous signal whereas we have been fowl and rabbit searching earlier within the fall. Final 12 months Lamoille County chalked up a kill of 627 bucks, and the largest deer within the state come largely from this northern part.

It’s too massive a rustic for deer drives, and anyway we like nonetheless searching finest, with each man on his personal. Don, the 2 Payments, and I break up up and went our separate methods. The morning was chilly and nonetheless as the primary tints of dawn coloured the jap skies.

I went proper to the highest of the mountain and headed south alongside the ridge, cradling my .308 caliber Savage 99 within the criminal of my elbow. I’ve loads of confidence in that capturing iron, and such confidence is half the battle in deer searching. I’ve anchored each deer and woodchucks with the .308, and in 1962 it transformed a black bear right into a rug.

This morning, sounds of occasional distant gunfire rolled by means of the encircling hills as I continued slowly alongside the mountain, pausing once in a while to hear and to look throughout. However I didn’t see something till I’d nearly come to the top of the ridge.

Then out of the blue two deer jumped forward of me. I heard them crash away in a crackle of branches, and I caught a glimpse of blurry grey motion within the brush. However I had no thought whether or not they have been bucks or does, and in Vermont’s common season you’d higher be certain.

“Antlers not lower than three inches in size,” the laws say.

These deer headed down into Lamphear Basin, however I may see the place they and different deer had been working in some beechnuts that lay thick beneath a stand of timber.

It regarded like a promising spot, so I made a decision to spend a little bit time there. I sat on a blowdown overlooking the beeches, with my rifle prepared throughout my knees.

The snap of a twig behind me made my muscle tissue tense, nevertheless it was solely a squirrel scampering throughout the forest flooring. Then a woodpecker drummed a tattoo on a close-by tree.

I used to be about to maneuver on as a result of I get nervous sitting nonetheless, after which, above the sound of the woodpecker’s drumming, I heard a shuffling within the brush.

Gripping the rifle, I stood up cautiously and noticed a sow bear and a yearling cub developing the ridge about 100 yards away.

A lightweight breeze was drifting from me towards them, however to date they hadn’t caught my scent. I eased away from the blowdown and sneaked quietly across the knoll to get the wind in my favor.

Once I regarded once more, the cub stood in plain sight, however all I may see of the sow was her rear finish. I didn’t wish to shoot the little fellow, regardless that I knew he was lots sufficiently old to handle himself. So I attempted to maneuver into place for a shot on the previous girl.

I will need to have spooked her, although, as a result of out of the blue she was gone as silently as a shadow. A second later I glimpsed her and the cub as they disappeared on the path down the mountainside.

I wasn’t very glad as I began up one other ridge, however I didn’t see how else I may have dealt with the state of affairs, as a result of the pair would absolutely have scented me if I’d stayed on the blowdown.

After which a second later I forgot all concerning the bears because the pounding of hoofs by means of dry leaves got here to my ears. Glancing up, I noticed a six-point buck bounding straight towards me. Perhaps the bears or one other hunter had jumped him.

Startled on the suddenness of this surprising growth, I tossed the rifle to my shoulder and snapped off a fast shot that missed.

But it surely turned him, and — getting a rein on my jumpy nerves — I took a very good bead behind the buck’s shoulder and fired once more at a variety of 30 yards. This time the 150-grain bullet tore by means of the deer’s lungs, dropping him in his tracks. And my hunt was over.

I dressed my buck and dragged it to Lamphear Basin on the opposite aspect of the mountain from the place I’d began. Luckily, I discovered Charlie Lamphear at his residence, and he drove me and my deer again to the Boy Scout space. It was 1 p.m.

In the meantime, once I’d left my brother Don that morning, he had gone up the mountain to my left. We have been supposed to satisfy on the ridge, however someway Don obtained rotated, bore too far to his proper, and finally discovered himself in Peters Swamp.

It turned out to be a lucky error as a result of, as he fought his manner by means of the thick, boggy jungle, he heard a wierd sound forward, a type of grunting, thudding, clashing noise “all combined up collectively,” as he described it. Stealing cautiously ahead, he got here to a little bit clearing and located two bucks furiously battling for a doe that stood demurely watching from the sting of the evergreens. The sight utterly unhinged Don, and all he may do was stand frozen and stare.

“They’d again off and cost at one another,” he mentioned. “And after they hit, it seemed like a pile driver. Then they’d hook and prance and snort across the clearing, jabbing at one another till unexpectedly they’d again away for one more cost.”

Don watched them for a number of minutes, as he shook from a foul case of buck fever. One of many bucks was a 12-pointer; the opposite was smaller. Twice Don raised his .30/30 Winchester Mannequin 94 and put its entrance bead on the bigger deer however every time Don shook a lot that the sight wobbled everywhere in the clearing.

The third time, he took a deep breath, tensed his muscle tissue, swung the bead alongside the large buck’s flank, and squeezed the set off.

On the rifle’s blast, the 12-pointer fell kicking. The smaller buck stood a second, immobile, then whirled with a snort and bounded away behind the fleeing doe.

When Don obtained to his buck, it lay stone-dead, shot by means of the neck. It was his first deer. Don dressed it and began to tug it to the street, however he’d gone solely a brief distance when he realized that he was going to wish assist. He hid the buck in a thicket and piled some brush over it. Then he set out for the street, and he didn’t waste any time getting there. Three-quarters of an hour later he burst into my home the place my spouse, Avis, was getting lunch for the kids.

“Is anyone again but?” he requested, panting.

“No,” Avis instructed him.

“Nicely, have you ever obtained a bit of rope?”

“What do you wish to do, tie up a deer?” Avis quipped.

“That’s proper,” Don mentioned. “A twelve-point buck I simply shot in Peters Swamp.”

“You’re kidding!” Avis mentioned, however she obtained the chunk of rope.

Don went again and hitched the rope to his buck. Then he dragged it by means of the comb out to the Griggs place, which was nearer the swamp than the Boy Scout space.

A passing hunter gave him a carry to the Scout space, the place he borrowed Invoice Curtis’s automobile and drove again to get his buck. Don managed to spice up it over a fender and drove again to the Boy Scout space simply after Charlie Lamphear and I had arrived with my buck.

After congratulating one another, we loaded Don’s deer and mine onto my automobile and took them to George Wright’s weighing station at Eden Corners. My buck tipped the beam at 134 kilos and Don’s 12-pointer at 188.

After we lastly arrived residence in mid-afternoon, we discovered two different bucks hanging within the yard. David and Dale had each scored.

After Dad, Dave, and Dale had crossed the Wolcott Department, they break up. Dale had hardly entered the woods when he ran right into a procession of deer that somebody had spooked from the hole. There have been seven deer within the band, and so they ran previous Dale, virtually in single file.

The primary 4 have been does. Then got here a small buck, and Dale obtained his .30/30 Winchester 94 to his shoulder. Whereas he was attempting to determine whether or not to shoot, one other doe got here bounding out of the comb, and behind her — final of all — a seven-point buck.

Dale didn’t wait any longer. He obtained his entrance sight on this seven-pointer, and when it flashed previous, he swung and shot. His bullet smashed by means of each the deer’s shoulders, and his buck sprawled in a heap.

Attracted by the shot, Dave over and helped Dale gown the deer and drag it the brief distance out to the street.

By 7:30 a.m., they’d Dale’s 175-pound buck loaded aboard my father’s station wagon.

Then they went again into the woods. Dale was by means of deer searching, after all, however there’s all the time an opportunity for a shot at a bear. Dave figured there have been extra deer within the hole the place Dale’s band had come from.

“You circle round to the left,” he instructed dad. “I’ll work in from the opposite aspect. We’d push one thing out.” They did. Slogging by means of the comb, dad jumped seven deer that scattered in all instructions with out giving him an opportunity for a shot.

He let loose a yell to warn Dave, and shortly one of many deer — a three-pointer — got here dashing previous Dave. Because the buck streaked throughout a gap within the evergreens, Dave pulled up his .30/30 Marlin and squeezed off a fast shot that knocked the deer down.

However as Dave got here as much as end it off, the three-pointer jumped up and took off once more. Dave’s hurried second shot was a clear miss.

Then started a chase I’d prefer to have seen. The way in which Dave tells it, the buck was hit laborious sufficient to go away a blood path, and Dave adopted it as quick as he may, straining his eyes by means of the comb for one more glimpse of the deer. Lastly he noticed the buck and fired once more. This was one other miss, and it solely made the deer transfer sooner.

That made Dave transfer sooner, and it will need to have been fairly a sight to see him chasing that buck by means of the pucker brush.

About 5 minutes later Dave obtained one other peek on the deer because it topped a little bit rise, and he despatched one other bullet blasting after it. This one related and knocked the buck down once more, however once more the three-pointer was up and away earlier than Dave reached him. Dave’s snap shot because the deer disappeared was one other miss.

The 2 bullets that hit, although, had slowed the buck down significantly. And Dave was persistent. He stored following the blood path till it lastly led to a brook. The buck was type of half-sitting on the financial institution beside a pool, and as Dave got here up, it slumped and slid into the water.

“I’ve obtained you now, you previous cuss!” Dave mentioned, and fired a remaining bullet, which transformed the 135-pound buck into venison.

That’s how Dave tells it, however my father has one other model.

“The way in which Dave obtained that deer,” he avers, “is he drownded it!”

Anyway, with the season solely a half a day previous, we had 4 good bucks hanging on the sport pole. There was various celebrating among the many Willey tribe that night time, and various consuming of deer hearts and livers.

Father had seen deer, however had no photographs. Invoice Curtis and his father had hunted all day with out even seeing a deer.

The subsequent morning the 2 Payments got here again to hunt with my father. They parked their automobiles on the Boy Scout space and hunted the part of Bigelow Mountain the place Don and I had been profitable the day earlier than.

Once more they hunted individually. My father hunted slowly alongside the wooded slope till he got here to an previous logging street that he adopted up onto the hardwood ridges. Right here he stopped to relaxation. He glanced at his watch and noticed that it was 9 a.m.

Simply seconds later he heard a faint rustling and turned to see a spikehorn buck step into the woods street behind him.

The deer noticed father on the similar time. However, because the buck gathered his muscle tissue to spring away, a bullet from dad’s Winchester .32 Particular carbine drilled by means of each lungs and despatched him somersaulting. Dad dressed him out, dragged him all the way down to the street, and introduced him residence. The spikehorn weighed 136 kilos.

That left Invoice Curtis Jr. and his father nonetheless wandering over the ridges. Within the late morning, a little bit discouraged, Invoice Jr. got here all the way down to the automobile and ate a sandwich. When he’d eaten and rested awhile he headed again into the woods, following the identical previous logging street the place dad had shot his spikehorn earlier that morning.

After some time he sat down on a moss-covered log to have a smoke, and a second later a nine-point buck got here strolling unconcernedly down the street proper towards him.

Stubbing his cigarette underneath his boot, and elevating his .303 caliber Enfield in a single fast movement, Invoice blasted the buck within the cranium, head-on, splitting its rack. The deer dropped lifeless in its tracks. Shortly after midday Invoice had his 213-pound buck dressed and draped over the fender of his automobile.

In the meantime, again on the ranch, as they are saying, my child brother, Roger, was planning to get into the act. He’d hurried by means of his barn chores. Then he’d grabbed his .22 caliber Mannequin 66 Winchester and began down the street towards the Boy Scout space to see if he may discover father and the Curtises.

His .22 wasn’t precisely a deer rifle, however that didn’t discourage Roger. He was out for venison.

He’d gone a couple of quarter of a mile down Route 100 when unexpectedly he spied a four-point buck consuming in a beaver pond.

Roger’s first bullet knocked the deer flat, nevertheless it jumped up and ran towards the street. Roger knocked it down once more. Once more it obtained up and headed again towards the pond. This time a few well-placed bullets put it down for retains.

Nearly beside himself with pleasure, Roger hid his deer in some brush and began for residence on the run to get a knife and a rope.

A brief distance up the street, a passing motorist gave him a carry residence to interrupt his momentous information. Roger’s buck, his first, weighed 124 kilos, field-dressed. Roger thinks deer searching is straightforward now.

“I can’t wait,” he says confidently, “to get one other buck subsequent season.”

He ought to speak to Invoice Curtis Sr., who by no means noticed a deer. Perhaps Invoice’s likelihood will come subsequent 12 months, though, as we inform him, the luck of the Willeys can’t be anticipated to increase too far past the quick household.

Anyway, at this level the remainder of us had seven bucks with a complete dressed weight of 1,105 kilos of venison for our winter meat provide.

That ought to have been the top of the story, however there was yet one more bonus left for the Willey household.

The next Saturday, Avis needed to go deer searching, so I took her out within the late afternoon. I drove down the street towards the previous asbestos mine in Eden.

I knew there have been some deer down that manner, however earlier than we obtained there, as we handed an apple orchard, I noticed a deer standing underneath a tree. It was too far for us to make certain of its intercourse, however once I broke out the binoculars I noticed that it was a three-point buck.
Avis raised my .308 Savage to her shoulder and touched off a shot. The buck leaped as soon as and landed in a heap beside the tree.

The bullet had struck an unlucky a part of his anatomy and didn’t enhance among the steaks, however anyway Avis had her first deer, a 105-pounder.

Learn Subsequent: ‘I Laughed, I Cried.’ After 36 Years, North Woods Hunter Finally Tags His First Deer

As I look again on this memorable hunt, I believe it’s fascinating that it introduced 4 of our group — Donald, Invoice Curtis Jr., Roger, and Avis — their first deer.

We don’t actually count on that we’ll be capable of duplicate this excellent success once more, however we’ll all be on the market attempting — together with Invoice Curtis Sr.