Patience the Key to Tagging Big Buck
By Dick Ellis
Jim Dlobik of Jackson, Wisconsin was hunting family land in Portage County near Wisconsin Rapids when his bowhunting experience and a good dose of patience helped him tag a beautiful 10 point buck November 7. Dlobik hunts 120 acres with his brothers (and this writer’s cousins) Dave and John Dlobik. The 4th brother Donny elected to hunt closer to home in Waukesha County.
“We come up for the rut every year and all we do is bowhunt,” Jim said. “We’re in our stands before sun-up and stay there until about 11:30 or so, meet for a sandwich, take an hour off and then we’re in the stand again until evening.”
All the Dlobiks were seeing a lot of deer, but all of the brothers have also had enough past bowhunting successes including scores on big bucks to wait out the chance for another bruiser. At about 2:00, Jim heard a buck grunt and soon watched an 8-pointer chase a doe near his stand.
“I’ve had experience two or three times where within a half-hour, bigger bucks are following a chase like that,” he said. “That’s what happened. This 10-pointer came on the same trail with his nose to the ground.”
Jim stopped the buck at 32 yards with a grunt call, placed the shot, and watched at 50 to 60 yards as the deer “crashed in the thick stuff”. The buck was recovered, and the call was made to the brothers.
“We tipped the whiskey bottle that night,” Jim said.
So did I, in my good cousin’s honor…and I was 100 miles north.