Syracuse.com - Auburn man's first buck with a bow a memorable one

[HuntingNY-News]

Adessa, 31, of Auburn, has been hunting deer since he was 16. He's gotten his share of deer with a shotgun, but up until this week only succeeded in getting does with his bow. What made this deer memorable is that he crawled some 200 yards across a field to get in position for a shot.

Submitted photo

Chris Adessa’s first buck with a bow was an extremely memorable one.

Memorable, not because of its size, but for how hard he had to work for it.

Adessa, 31, of Auburn, has been hunting deer since he was 16. He’s gotten his share of deer with a shotgun, but up until this week only succeeded in getting does with his bow.

“I got a new bow this year, all new equipment. The goal of the season was to get my first buck,” he said.

On Wednesday, Chris, who’s the general manager of the Mesa Grande Taqueria in downtown Auburn, was in a tree stand on property he and his father lease in the town of Scipio. He had to leave early to go to work, and on the way out spooked four bucks and several does.

Thursday, he was in a different stand and again got a call to come into work early. He went to the edge of the woods to check the field where he had seen the deer the day before. “They were in the same exact spot,” he said.

He decided to go back into the woods and called his father to tell him he was going to wait there to see if the deer would come over.

He walked a slight distance and then looked out into the field and saw that a buck and a doe had bedded down right behind a small patch of goldenrod, just over a small rise. He then called a friend, Mike Gallaro, of Throop, and described the situation — noting the wind direction and the availability of cover (or lack thereof).

Gallaro advised him to try stalking the deer on the ground, and said he had nothing to lose. Between Adessa and the deer “was mostly short grass, about 6-8 inches tall.”

Adessa shed his quiver, took a single arrow and his Hoyt bow and got on this hands and knees. He began a slow, deliberate crawl — sometimes dropping to his belly — of more than 200 yards through the field.

“There were a lot of prickers, but I dodged them all,” he said.

About halfway there, he got impatient and stood up. He took a few steps in a crouched manner. Out of the corner of his eye, Adessa spotted another set of antlers from deer that had also bedded down just over the rise near the others. At that point, he dropped to his belly, waited a few moments to make sure they didn’t see him, and continued to crawl.

Eventually, Adessa got within about 40 yards of the deer, but the goldenrod was in the way. He crawled a short distance to his left to get a clear shot. He got up on his knees, put his arrow in his bow and came to a full draw. He then emitted “a bleat call” (which imitates the sound a doe makes) with his mouth a total of four times. A five-point buck was the first to stand up. It was also the closest.

Realizing this might be his only opportunity, Adessa fired the arrow. It hit the buck slightly behind the right rib, and the arrow exited its left shoulder.

Afterward he called his father, excitedly saying, “I got a five-point, I got a five-point.”

His father drove down to help him field-dress and load the deer into the back of his truck. He saw the matted grass and the distance his son had crawled.

“I wouldn’t try that in 100 years,” he said. “It’s the stuff you see on TV.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog