The story of Triton begins on August 19, 2019. A trail camera placed on the inside corner of a midsummer bean field caught a sequence of six pictures from a buck that we had no history with, a buck my daughter Taylor would later give the name Triton. These six pictures would be the only pictures we would get from this mystery buck.
We assumed the buck was bedding on an adjoining property and had only been passing through. After talking with one of our neighbors and sharing pics ,we confirmed our suspicions that he was staying on their property.
Fast forward to November 13, my alarm went off at 345. I rolled over and pulled up the forecast on my phone. It called for morning temperatures in the single digits and wind gusts 10-20 mph increasing throughout the day. It sounded like a good day to sleep in and head in to the stand a little late. My wife on the other hand wasn't keen on being woke up twice and kicked me out of bed. So off I went! Conditions were great for the 2nd week of November. There was a fresh inch of snow on the ground that covered my noise entering the stand along with a stiff SSW wind. The morning started off with some great action. Smaller bucks cruising , grunting, and chasing does all over the ditch bottom I was dug in to. The plan for the morning was to sit until 930 or so, head to town to grab a bite to eat and warm up a bit, then head back in to sit the rest of the day. Those plans didn't stick long because the action didn't stop all morning. At 10:40 I caught movement on the opposite side of the ditch. At first sight it was a "No Brainier" , this buck was a shooter. I quickly grabbed my bow and range finder. If he was to stay on the path he was headed, I'd have a 49 yard shot at him. As I'm getting ready to dial my HHA Tetra to 49, I looked up and he split off the trail and started heading up to the bedding area. I had to make something happen now. I picked up my grunt call and tried to give a few soft grunts, but it was froze up. I gave one hard blow until the reed freed up and threw out 4 horribly sounding grunts. He turned and started down the hill for me and it was then that I realized that it was Triton! He started running down the ridge straight for me stopping at the creek pausing for a brief second. He then leapt the creek coming straight in on a string. I drew my Elite Ritual settled my single pin on his vitals as he came closer and stopped at 22 yards broadside. I slowly squeezed off the shot sending a shot through both lungs.
After the shot my emotions and the cold settled in instantly. I had to sit down and get my bearings. I made a few quick teeth chattering and blubbering phone calls to buddies and my wife. After sending some messages to my Working Class Bowhunter Podcast friends ,I decided to get down and back out for a bit. I thought the shot was kind of high and Triton needed some time to expire. After giving him a couple hours , I headed back into track. Instead of heading straight back in to the blood soaked arrow, I decided to sneak down the edge of the ditch, glassing where he had ran into instead of risking the wind if he was still alive. There were two drainages that lead to the creek where the deer like to bed, so I figured I'd give these two spots a quick look. The first drainage came up empty, so l moved another 10 yards to check out the second. As I'm working my way up the drainage with my binos I make out the rump of a deer. I rearrange myself to see around the tree and there he was laying in his bed; expired! I ran straight across the ditch, knelt by his side and offered thanks.
The story of Triton was short-lived. He no doubt lived up to expectations of a mystery buck. Curt Geier will be scoring the rack after the 60 day drying period is done.
