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THE "WHEEZER"
By: John Eberhart
Please sit down and have an open mind before you start reading this article, because it is going to sound ficticous. The buck I am writing about became known to all of my hunting buddies as the Wheezer, due to his unbelievable social habits with several matriarch does, along with his uncanny ability to exit an area without making a sound.
I have been Bowhunting for 37 years and have taken 16 book bucks from eight different counties in Michigan, 14 of which were taken with a bow. In all those years I had never encountered a buck even close to being as smart, careful, and lucky as the Wheezer.
My first encounter was in October 1997 while hunting out of a large oak. Under a lone tree 15 yards away and next to a standing cornfield, was a primary scrape area. Just as it was cracking daylight I decided to do a couple rattling sequences. The first sequence was all it took however. A very respectable 8 point stepped out of the corn and offered me a mere 10 yard broadside shot. As my cams rolled over while drawing my bow, one of the plastic draw length elements ticked against the aluminum cam. Hearing it, the buck bolted and stopped out of my range. I obviously did not realize at the time how much frustration that 2 ½ year old 8 point was going to cause me over the next 3 seasons.
Needless to say, all the prior practicing I had done did not reveal the tick. Both plastic draw length elements were replaced with aluminum elements prior to using that bow in a hunting situation again. Fortunately, I have 2 bows set up for just that reason, and the other one already had metal elements.
On October 2nd 1998, Mike Saunders, a friend of mine who hunts that farm as well rattled in the same buck out of the same tree just prior to dark. Mike had a decoy set out which in all likelihood cost him an opportunity. When he crossed the ditch from his bedding area into what was then a soybean field, he had a mature doe with him. She walked towards the decoy as he waited along the edge of the field about 50 yards away. Does tend to figure out that decoys are not real much quicker than bucks and she soon spooked and took him with her. Now as a 3½ year old, he had grown to about a 16 inch wide heavy 8 pointer.
Later that season on an evening hunt during the pre-rut and out of the same oak tree that both prior encounters occurred I had him coming directly towards me through a huge weed field. Between my tree and the weed field is a muddy ditch 8 yards wide, then a 10 yard wide grassy buffer prior to a patch of red brush which runs about 20 yards out into the tall weeds. This weed field had become his bedding area. The oak from which I hunt is right on the edge of the ditch and 5 yards from the edge of the crop field.
The buck entered and passed through the red brush stopping just prior to exposing his body into the grassy buffer, which would have given me a 20 yard shot. What happened next not only floored me, it also gave him his name. The buck stood there like a rock until it was just about dark and then he wheezed. Now I have heard bucks wheeze a couple times before, but it was generally with other bucks around, and done to show dominance. But this was definitely different.
I hope you're still sitting down, because now it gets interesting. Within seconds of him wheezing, three large does came across the picked bean field, crossed the ditch within twenty yards of me and started scent checking the grassy buffer for about twenty minutes. I could hear them taking in air through their nostrils in an attempt to find any danger. It reminded me of body guards checking to see if it was safe for the President to pass through. They never confronted the buck, but walked by him several times as if it were routine. Being satisfied that it was safe, the does crossed back across the ditch. Unfortunately by now it was dark. My Scent-Lok suit and rubber boots had kept them from winding me or smelling where I had walked to my tree.
I never heard the buck leave the brush, so I waited for about an hour and a half after dark before exiting my tree so that I would not spook him if he were still close by. He had left without making a sound. All the way back to the van I kept thinking how cool that experience was and that nobody would believe me. I really did not care about the believing part but I was excited to have a very worthy opponent to brainstorm against. That opponent would become known as the "Wheezer".
Having spooked does in the field with my exit that night I waited until the evening prior to gun season to hunt the oak again. That hunt was uneventful. The next morning (which was the gun opener) the wheezer was missed by two gun hunters as he was running across the weed field, towards a swamp on the other side.
I thought about the Wheezer a lot the next summer and whether he made it through gun season or not. The area that the Wheezer lives receives a lot of both gun and bow hunting pressure. The 40 acre weed field however is property which does not get hunted by bird or deer hunters.
The farmer rotated the crop field into corn in 1999. On October 1st as I was walking down the edge of the corn towards my tree an hour and a half prior to daybreak, the sounds of bucks sparring across the ditch in the weed field caught my attention. Could it be that my extra early entry to guarantee I did not spook any deer just prior to daybreak was not early enough. As the bucks kept sparring about 75 yards away I climbed into my tree sling 25 feet up my oak. The bucks kept sparring and taking breaks until daylight. As my eyes adjusted to the light I could make out the Wheezer sparring with two smaller bucks. About 20 minutes after daybreak as I watched the three bucks take turns sparring with each other, the Wheezer stopped, let out a long loud wheeze, and the two subordinate bucks immediately started back across the ditch and into the standing corn. One of them, a small eight point went right under my tree. The Wheezer slowly walked away and disappeared into the tall weeds. Later that morning, Mike took the 8-point that had passed by me earlier.
The Wheezer, now 4 ½ years old, was still an 8 point, but had grown to about an 18 inch spread that I guessed would score around 130 inches. It was exciting to see him still alive, but depressing to know how nocturnal he was outside of his bedding area.
Mike had what we think was the next encounter with him. He had set up in another oak along the edge of a small marsh between the cornfield and a wood lot. It was late October and the pre-rut was in full swing. The area had lots of doe traffic moving through it. It was a frosty morning as Mike set up about an hour before first light. Just before daybreak he heard a deer coming from about 100 yards away and just inside the marsh. The deer stopped about 10 to 15 yards upwind of him. It was still dark so Mike did not turn around to look at the deer. It was assumed that he had stopped to listen for other deer moving around in the oaks. Both Mike and the deer stayed motionless until it was just cracking daylight. With bow in hand Mike slowly turned his head to see, absolutely nothing. After hearing that deer coming from that distance in the frosty marsh grass, he had left without making a sound. We both felt fairly sure that he had encountered the Wheezer. Mike was starting to believe what I had told him about this deer, and how tough it was going to be to harvest him.
Being a firm believer in not over hunting a good location, I was back in my oak along the ditch for only the third time of the season. It was early November on an evening hunt, and it was a carbon copy of the evening hunt in 1998. He came through the weeds and into the red brush and wheezed. Four does came out of the standing corn, crossed the ditch and ditto, it was after dark again with nothing but frustration to drag out of the woods. That was my last hunt for him that season.
Year 2000, new century, hopefully the Wheezer made it again, and hopefully he lost some brain cells, no, lots of brain cells. So far I had not been a worthy opponent. The farmer planted corn again which I personally preferred due to the easy and safe transition from cover to cover for adult deer from bedding to feeding area.
At 4:30 a.m. on October 1st as I was approaching my oak tree I spooked 2 deer standing beneath the annual primary scrape tree. All I could do was sigh as my flashlight beam crossed paths with the Wheezer as he was splashing across the ditch heading into the weed field. Yeah, he made it another season, but damn, it was 2-1/2 hours before daylight and he was making a scrape prior to crossing into his bedding area for the day. I relentlessly climbed into my sling to waste the remainder of the morning.
That evening I passed up a 2-1/2 year old 8 point while awaiting another confrontation with the Wheezer, however it never happened. One thing that I could not figure out was why he continued bedding in the weed field when there was at least 100 acres of standing corn to bed in with total security, and no chance of danger in a transition area from bedding to feeding area. This puzzled me, because usually that much standing corn attracts the dominant bucks for a bedding area, oh well.
On October 21st, on an evening hunt I decided to try and rattle him in again. Not rattling in that location in two seasons, I thought it might work. As the sun was dipping beneath the horizon I started my routine. Within moments a deer was moving through the standing corn in my direction, so I tied my rattle bag onto my bow rope and lowered it to the ground. I jiggled it to give the deer the exact location as he was closing in on me. As he stepped out of the corn, my anticipation stopped. It was a cute little six point. After about 5 minutes of not seeing, hearing, or smelling anything he went back into the cornfield.
It was getting dark as I was preparing to get down when I heard a deer moving towards me down the ditch line. Could it be, absolutely, the Wheezer was moving down the other side of the ditch towards my location. Would there be enough light by the time he gets here. It did not matter because he stopped, wheezed, and two does came out of the corn, crossed the ditch and again started scent checking for him. Forgetting to raise my rattle bag up off the ground, one of the does walked under my tree and winded it. She snorted and that was the end of that. It was dark by the time she snorted anyway, but I still hate to have a mature animal know of my presence.
Well the reality of me ever taking the Wheezer was becoming very bleak. How could a buck that was so patternable to a specific location be so hard to kill? The reason was obvious to me, he never entered my kill zone during daylight hours, at least not on the days I hunted there. And I felt that if that oak were hunted more than 3 or 4 times per season that he would find another entry location into the crops altogether. After all there was way too much adult deer activity going on every time he crossed that ditch in the evening, for me to hunt that spot with any more regularity.
Finally, on Friday November 3rd, I was perched in my oak at 3:45 p.m. Thank God it was a windy evening otherwise what ended up happening never would have happened. Once up the tree I could not help but notice the five fresh scrapes under his primary tree only 15 yards away. The dirt had not dried over yet, so I knew they had been freshened in the last few hours. At 4:40, I about fell out of my tree as the Wheezer stepped out the end of the red brush at a distance of only 40 yards. As he was moving towards the ditch I drew my bow. I had anticipated this moment for so long that I almost blew it, and actually thought about taking the very poor shot opportunity. Fortunately I did not, and let back down. The scrapes were fresh and I figured he would cross the ditch to check them, giving me a 15 yard shot.
He quietly crossed through the 3 foot deep mud ditch and circled downwind of his scrapes, which also put him directly downwind of me. Yes, I have enough confidence in my Scent-Lok suit that the thought of him winding me never entered my mind. He stopped momentarily 20 yards from his scrapes and stuck his snout in the air to scent check them. He then dropped his head and slowly walked towards the standing corn. It was now or never! I had waited 4 long years for this shot. He was 35 yards quartering slightly away as I drew my bow and blatted to stop his forward progress. Never having taken a shot at that distance at a deer made me feel a little uncomfortable. I put my 35 yard pin behind his shoulder and let fly. As my Carbon Express 300 tipped with a Silvertip head disappeared into his chest cavity he wheeled and plowed back across the ditch into his security blanket of tall weeds. After traveling a total of about 60 yards he disappeared headlong into the weeds, never to move again.
There was a feeling of great respect for this animal as I walked up to him lying motionless in the tall weeds. I felt very privileged to harvest the Wheezer. During my bow hunting years I have taken several bucks in which several seasons were required to harvest them. But never have I hunted such a social and smart buck.
The Wheezer had several reasons to be smart. Upon skinning him I discovered a 12 ga. slug in his right hind quarter, 2-double 00 buck shot pellets in his neck, and a 2-3/4 inch cut Vortex broad head with two inches of aluminum shaft buried in his left shoulder. The head had entered above his right shoulder just below the spine and through the tenderloin, it then clipped the top of his left lung and buried into his left shoulder. I am quite sure that whomever it was that took that shot, assumed that they had killed him. The broadhead was covered with cartilage and the wound was at least one year old.
He dressed out at 178 pounds and carried a 130 inch gross, 8 point rack. I have taken much bigger bucks in Michigan but never one as rewarding as the Wheezer.
Good Hunting
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