Double Up Bucks
Steuben County, NY bucks
Cameron Wise(left) Karsten Petti(right)
As told by Cameron Wise
What a crazy morning! November 19, 2023 Started off with waking up at 5 am and the two of us heading in separate directions. Walking to the deer blind at approximately 5:45 am we jumped up a doe and really nice buck... thinking the hunt wouldn’t be worth much after that. I got to the blind, turned the heater up, got comfy and waited, while on the other side of town Karsten was up in the tree getting ready and all settled. Daylight cracked with not a deer in sight for either of us. We both knew the rut was on and we had to pay very close attention.
The morning went on, not seeing any deer, thinking it was gonna be a bust up hunt for both of us. At approximately 7:15 am I got a call from my brother saying he just shot a giant buck. At this point I was ready to climb out of the blind and go help Karsten retrieve his deer. He stated he had help and told me to sit a little longer and wait cause the bucks were on their feet. I congratulated Karsten and went on with my hunt.
Then something caught my attention. A bright white set of antlers coming out of the woods, which I thought was a branch sticking out. I slowly grabbed my binoculars and pulled them up and realized it was a very nice buck slowly making his way out of the thick. I slowly opened the blind window and started to get the shakes when I reached for the gun.
At approximately 7:40 am, not even 25 minutes apart from Karsten shooting a giant buck, I had a shot at a big buck coming right for me. He turned broadside at 117 yards and I let some led fly. I quickly called Karsten and told him I just shot a nice buck. he congratulated me and was in the process of getting his deer loaded into the gator. After getting off the phone with Karsten I called my dad and told him the news. I started putting my gear on to get ready to go find him.
My dad met me out at the blind and gave me a big ol' hug and congratulated me. We walked to where the deer was standing when I shot and there was blood everywhere. We tracked him for about 80 yards near a river, looked to our left and there he was laying inside the stream. I rushed into the water to get him out and get my hands on this deer. We pulled him out, tagged him up, took our pictures and tried to find the easiest way out of the swamp. Me and my dad were exhausted from dragging this deer so we went and got the truck and tied a rope around him and dragged him the rest of the way back to where we could load him up for the travel up the hill to the shop. We got him loaded up and headed home ready to show off two really nice deer, shot not even 30 minutes apart from each other. We celebrated our big harvest.