The Legend of Uncle Buck

The legend of Uncle Buck survives 2025

I had seen him on camera two weeks before the hunting opener. He was massive and somehow, someway, I was going to bag this big boy. There isn't any hunting pressure on our 94 acres of land and so the deer I dubbed Uncle Buck had plenty of room to roam and hide. There's a reason he has survived as long as he has. He's cunning, crafty and smart. Opening weekend came and went and although I saw deer including a couple of nice bucks that I could have taken a shot at, I waited. I knew what I wanted to get the chance to see. I hadn't been on a deer stand for 30 years and although buck fever hit me, I wanted to be selective. The second weekend came with temperatures in the 30's and a northwest wind that was going to be a challenge. I climbed up into my stand with positive thoughts that I was going to get my deer. A couple of hours into the day, movement from my right side caught my eye.

It was a coyote.

He stood still knowing something wasn't right. After about two minutes, he sauntered out across the field directly in front of me. We had caught coyotes on our cameras near the house. They are predators in every sense of the word and will take out our chickens, kittens even dogs in the blink of an eye. I messaged Tanya and asked her if I should take it out. Before she even had the chance to message me back, I had my sites on him and squeezed the trigger. I hit him right in front of the rear legs. He stumbled just out of sight in some long grass by a slough. I waited for movement and after about 10 minutes of not seeing anything. I gathered my rifle and opened the door to my stand and took a step out. The coyote emerged from the long grass with its coat soaked in blood. I knew I had hit it near his rear legs. I got off another shot as it ran towards the woods. I missed but I knew it was hurting. I got down from my stand and wondered to the spot where it laid. There was a big blood pile and it also left part of its intestines behind as well. Wherever it went, it wasn't going to live long. I called Tanya to get her thoughts on my next steps. I don't like things to suffer (even coyotes) so my brain told me to track it and make sure it was dead. Based on the fact, that I had just fired two shots, my odds for seeing a deer at this point was probably slim to none and I was sort of pumped up with the coyote episode so my volume was not what one would call soft. I made the choice to try to track it in the woods and hung up with Tanya after sending her a couple of pictures from the gut pile. I took a few steps toward the woods where the coyote passed through and immediately froze. There he was. Standing less than 20 yards in front of me. It was Uncle Buck. There are several things that defy logic. How is it that I could have taken two shots, made a ton of noise and have a predator animal run through and yet there he was.

His antlers are what I saw first. Well, truth be told, it was the sun that glared off of them. It was at that exact moment that I knew two things. First, he was facing me and any chance I was going to have was going to be a gut shot directly into his chest cavity. Second, there was no chance I was going to get anything off but a hip shot. What felt like a five minute stare down, ended as Uncle Buck turned and disappeared into the same woods that the coyote had just entered ten minutes prior. I was crushed. Had I stayed in the stand, I might have had a shot at him. At the least, I would have been able to get a better look at him. What I do know is that he's the biggest buck I have ever seen. After finishing my little pitty party, I continued the mission of trying to track the coyote. I found another pile of intestines and some blood but lost the trail. I headed back to the stand wondering what could have been, but also recognizing that the legend of Uncle Buck grew on that day. It may have been the first time our paths crossed, but it won't be the last.