The Round Bail Buck

Over the years of hunting nothing seems to surprise me any more. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all something even more bizarre happens, that’s the greatest thing about the outdoors. When real life can become stranger than fiction.

This buck was taken years back in 2005 and turned out to be very memorable. We spent a long morning of walking and it was a cold November day seeing very few animals and all the bucks were below par. Now the middle of the day we decided to drive home have some lunch, warm up and plan where the evening hunt would take us.

On the drive back to the house we passed by a field full of round bails and something had caught my attention from the corner of my eye, it was something small moving around the bottom of a bail about 300 yards out in the field.

STOP I screamed "what’s that right there" with both of us glassing the field there was nothing out of the ordinary so we slowly keep driving and I see it again, moving around the bail as we come to see the other side of it.

I knew it wasn't a coyote or a fox at this time of year they run a hundred miles a hour around here in hunting season! Still glassing the bail I see a puff of steam and just had that feeling it was a buck, who else would be smart enough to crawl on his belly at the bottom of a bail.

Well the stalk was on an we closed the distance fast 200, 100, now at less than 50 yard I could see the tips of antlers poking from the bottom of the bail. There he laid knowing we where there, he just laid as flat to the ground as he could not moving. We started to wait him out till he got up and gave us a shot but it never happened he wouldn't budge. That was till a doe wandered in from a slough bottom and walked right up to him  as she was only yards away, he still wouldn't lift his head that was till she seen us and bolted, he followed suit leaving him open to 2 shooters.

Looking back at the bail he had crawled all the way around on his belly and laid there with his head flat on the ground!

That is the story of the round bail buck!