[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/the-legend-of-lucky\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/the-legend-of-lucky\/","headline":"The Legend of Lucky","name":"The Legend of Lucky","description":"It was August 2010, and as usual, my friend Kurt and I were out at one of my hunting properties...","datePublished":"2014-04-02","dateModified":"2018-10-24","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/#Person","name":"Hector Agosto","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Legendary Whitetails","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","url":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","width":522,"height":226}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Jarrod-buck5.jpg","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Jarrod-buck5.jpg","height":800,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/the-legend-of-lucky\/","about":["News"],"wordCount":2228,"keywords":["Celebrity"],"articleBody":"It was August 2010, and as usual, my friend Kurt and I were out at one of my hunting properties located in central Wisconsin checking trail cameras for the first time that summer. \u00a0We often times leave our cameras out for several months at a time without disturbing them to minimize pressure and scent. \u00a0As we began to scroll through the pictures, we couldn\u2019t help but notice a stand-out 8 pointer that appeared to be around 3 years old at first glance. \u00a0The buck had incredible G2\u2019s and G3\u2019s, good mass and showed the potential to hit 150\u201d or more within the next few years. \u00a0Kurt and I agreed to give him a free pass that fall and keep an eye on him in the coming seasons. \u00a0Nothing is more gratifying for us as Sportsmen than to watch a buck grow over several years, mature and reach its overall potential before pursuing the animal.\u00a0The following season, fall of 2011, the buck continued to show up on our trail cameras, and to our surprise was moving a lot during daylight hours. \u00a0Kurt and I spent a lot of time studying the photos, although the buck had grown quite a bit from the previous year, we again decided to give the buck a free pass. \u00a0We just knew this buck had still not reached his full potential, plus we had several other bucks on the property that had made the hit list that fall.\u00a0It was during that season that this story really begins to take shape. \u00a0I will never forget it. \u00a0It was a Wednesday evening, November 9, 2011. \u00a0I was at home, back in Webster, WI that evening when I received the phone call. \u00a0It was one of my neighbors from the hunting property in central Wisconsin. \u00a0He had been bowhunting that evening and shot a nice buck. \u00a0He felt confident he had made a lethal shot and was calling for permission to track the animal which had made its way onto my property. \u00a0I told him I had appreciated the call and told him that he could certainly enter my property to track and recover the animal. \u00a0The neighbor never called back and we assumed he had found the buck and all was good.\u00a0A few weeks later, Kurt went out to check trail cameras after gun season had ended to take inventory on what bucks had made it through the firestorm. \u00a0He couldn\u2019t believe what he found. \u00a0The 8 pointer that we had been watching for the last 2 years had passed in front of two separate trail cameras on November 10, the day after the neighbor had shot him with the arrow still in him.\u00a0Kurt also had photos of the neighbor passing by tracking the buck on the same two cameras. \u00a0Six days later, the photos showed the arrow removed and the buck still alive and walking around. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t believe it, this was one \u201cLucky\u201d buck, and from then on\u2026the name just stuck, he would forever be known as \u201cLucky\u201d. \u00a0That winter, Kurt was also \u201cLucky\u201d enough to find both sides of his sheds.\u00a0During 2012, the buck was able to completely recover from his injury and to our surprise, developed a full, healthy rack. \u00a0That fall he officially made the hit list. \u00a0One of my close childhood friends, Joe Peterson, would join Kurt and I that bow season on the hunt for \u201cLucky\u201d. \u00a0We were getting several trail cam photos of \u201cLucky\u201d but all of them were in the middle of the night.\u00a0\u00a0He had become very nocturnal and all but a ghost in the woods. \u00a0Our hopes of seeing him that fall were dwindling.\u00a0\u00a0During the peak of the rut that season, Joe decided to give it a go and headed out to an area that \u201cLucky\u201d had frequented. \u00a0He began his sit that evening by picking several trails, trees and brush piles in open shooting lanes to range in advance to ready himself for a quick encounter, knowing all too well that the rut is typically filled with high speed encounters as bucks chase hot does through the area.\u00a0As many would expect while reading this, indeed \u201cLucky\u201d would make an appearance. \u00a0Joe first noticed a buck enter the area from the top of a ridge to his west about 150-200 yards away. \u00a0As the buck made his way down the trail at a fast pace, Joe anticipated which shooting lane the buck would pass through. \u00a0As the buck closed the gap quickly, Joe waited patiently. \u00a0As the buck came within shooting range, Joe immediately recognized the buck as \u201cLucky\u201d, snapped to full draw, stopped the buck in the perfect opening and let the arrow fly. \u00a0The arrow passed over the bucks back, a clean miss. \u00a0As the buck ran off, Joe could not understand what went wrong; I think we\u2019ve all been there with the same feeling of disbelief. \u00a0He had put his pin at 35 yards, exactly the distance he had ranged a few hours before, was it just buck fever? \u00a0He grabbed his range finder again, lifted it to his eye and ranged the trail again. \u00a025 yards. \u00a0Sure enough he had confused the trail distance with another location in his set during the heat of the moment. \u00a0After sharing his story of his encounter that evening with Kurt and I, we all made plans to give the property a rest for a few months and come back in January for another try during the Holiday hunt.\u00a0The wait was long, but January rolled around and the Holiday Hunt finally came. \u00a0This time we would be filming the hunts with Lake Country Whitetails, everyone was filled with anticipation, would \u201cLucky\u201d make another appearance? \u00a0We were hunting that evening with firearms; Joe, Kurt and I in different stand sets, all within a few hundred yards of each other. \u00a0We were hunting between the cedar swamp, where the herd would bed, and their food source, the standing corn fields. \u00a0A few hours before dusk, the herd began their daily migration through the mature hardwoods toward our positions, deer after deer passing under our stands, no sign of \u201cLucky\u201d. \u00a0All at once, I hear a shot from Kurt\u2019s location, the deer were everywhere and upon hearing the shot, started to swarm the area. \u00a0My eyes were peeled, watching intently on the deer as they passed us heading back into the swamp. \u00a0Off in the distance, there he was, \u201cLucky\u201d was on the run and hobbling as if he was injured. \u00a0I took aim in my scope and waited for him to stop or slow down\u2026 he came to a slow trot and I pulled the trigger. \u00a0After the shot, I lost him in the scope and could not tell exactly what had happened. \u00a0Moments later, I received a text from Kurt, he had seen \u201cLucky\u201d and shot him. \u00a0He was confident he had made a great shot, perfectly placed in the heart. \u00a0I texted him back that I had also seen \u201cLucky\u201d running back into the swamp and could tell he had been hit good. \u00a0Kurt had heard my shot and was hoping I had news of putting the finishing shot on him.\u00a0After reviewing the footage that both cameramen had captured, we were all confident that Kurt had shot him in the lower chest area, very close to the heart, and my shot had hit the buck somewhere in the neck, but we could not quite tell where. \u00a0\u201cLucky\u2019s\u201d story had come to an end. \u00a0We found an incredible blood trail and started to follow it. \u00a0As we started to enter the swamp, the trail continued, and continued and continued. \u00a0The blood started to slow in the snow and eventually after about 400-500 yards, came to a trickle. \u00a0We decided to call off the recovery until the following day. \u00a0The last thing we wanted to do was push \u201cLucky\u201d out of the swamp.\u00a0Kurt returned the next day and began tracking \u201cLucky\u201d from last blood the evening before. \u00a0He came across several beds the buck had laid in that evening and decided to call off the recover after 3 hours of tracking the buck. \u00a0Kurt couldn\u2019t believe it. \u00a0How could this buck have lived through two solid shots from two separate .300 Win short mag rifles? \u00a0Did he lie down and die somewhere? \u00a0Would we ever find him? \u00a0Kurt regrettably stopped tracking the buck that day and knew only time would tell. \u00a0We both felt sick. There is no feeling worse than wounding such a majestic animal, you feel overrun with a sense of despair.\u00a0After several weeks passed, Kurt again went out to the property to check trail cameras, shed hunt and take another look around for \u201cLucky\u201d. \u00a0He couldn\u2019t believe it. \u00a0The buck had shown up on several trail cameras, revealing the precise locations of our shots to the lower chest and base of his neck. \u00a0\u201cLucky\u201d was still alive. \u00a0The more incredible thing about the trail cam photos was that the stress from the two gunshots had made him shed early. \u00a0One trail cam photo shows him walking by the camera on January 20, 2013,\u00a0\u00a0and two days later, \u201cLucky\u201d would walk by the same camera after shedding his antlers. \u00a0The wounds looked like they were festering and getting infected. \u00a0Would he make it?\u00a0\u00a0The next fall our questions were answered. \u00a0Not only did \u201cLucky\u201d survive the winter, he again fully recovered and grew an incredible rack and seemed very healthy. \u00a0This buck was now a Legend in our eyes, a true testament for the Whitetail deer and their amazing will to survive. \u00a0And the story doesn\u2019t end here.\u00a0This last fall, during the 2013 bowhunting season, I took a shot at a very nice mid 150\u2019s 8-pointer (not \u201cLucky\u201d) with a split G2.\u00a0\u00a0My arrow hit a branch during its flight and hit just above its intended mark. \u00a0I gave the buck a few hours to expire before I started tracking him. \u00a0In an effort to travel light while tracking, I only took one arrow and left my quiver at the tree. \u00a0I began to follow the blood trail at a very slow pace as to be very quiet in case the buck was bedded in front of me somewhere down the trail. \u00a0After following the blood trail for about 100 yards, I saw a deer bedded about 25 yards in front of me behind a fallen tree cluttered with branches looking right at me. \u00a0I could only see its ears poised in my direction, and there was a small 2 foot window in the brush exposing its vitals. \u00a0It must be my buck; it was looking right at me and not wanting to make a move. \u00a0After waiting for about five minutes and considering my options, I decided to use my last arrow and finish him off. \u00a0I snapped to full draw, steadied on his vitals and released the arrow. \u00a0This time my arrow hit its mark perfectly. \u00a0The deer jumped up and ran; I immediately noticed it was not my buck, but instead a doe! \u00a0As soon as the doe had jumped up, another deer came crashing out of the brush pile behind it\u2026it was \u201cLucky\u201d! \u00a0The two were bedded together and were most likely actively breeding or getting ready to that same day. \u00a0The doe stopped after bounding away about 20 yards, stood there for about 30 seconds and fell. \u00a0\u201cLucky\u201d stood just behind her, and while standing broadside to me, just looked back at me for what seemed to be forever. \u00a0Here I was, face-to-face with \u201cLucky\u201d, the Legend himself. \u00a0 We had watched him grow and mature for over 4 years. \u00a0We had unfortunately missed him and wounded him during several encounters. \u00a0This animal had persevered through all of that and stood proudly in front of me. \u00a0The moment was almost surreal and something I will soon not forget as the Legend of \u201cLucky\u201d continues.\u00a0"},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Legendary Whitetail's Blog"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/the-legend-of-lucky\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"The Legend of Lucky"}}]}]