Photos by Joe Braun
Story by Jeff Kurrus
T
he best story I have ever heard of buck
fever was told to me by a bowhunter who,
as he relived the nightmare, still couldn't
seem to fathom the chance he had passed. He had
started bowhunting as an adult, and during one of
his first outings, he looked to his left and saw the
hugest white-tailed buck he had ever seen walk-
ing down the wooded trail in his direction. It was
a TV buck – large, white, symmetrical antlers
that had grown in seemingly all directions.
The hunter's mouth remained open as the
deer slowly neared. With each step, the buck's
impossibly large rack grew even larger. Unaware
of the hunter, the deer continued to saunter down
the trail, underneath the hunter's stand, and then
out of sight.
When the deer finally disappeared, the hunter
said a silent "Wow" to himself and then, for
the first time, realized that he had become so
enamored with the buck that he had watched it
walk in the wide open beneath his stand without
ever thinking that he should have actually tried to
take a shot at him.
But that's what a deer will do to you.
Before the season begins, many hunters will
plant food plots, manage trail cameras and read
deer studies from organizations like Quality
Deer Management Association just to learn a bit
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32 NEBRASKAland • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2017