Oregon 2007 Success

A Soldier Returns To Continue His Passion of Hunting
Pending Oregon State Record Archery Velvet Typical Mule deer
by Nick Mickelson

My love for hunting and fishing started nineteen years ago when my great-grandpa put a .22 in my hands when I was just six years old. I couldn’t wait to turn twelve so that I could go deer hunting. My first year was a memorable one. I had an old Fred Bear bow that my parents bought at a garage sale. The spray paint was chipping off and the red was showing through the camo. My step-dad rattled in a doe for me and I got a ten-yard shot from the ground. I had a smile on my face from ear to ear. I figured that that doe would be the most exiting hunt that I would be a part of – boy, was I wrong.

I hunted every year of my life since that first year until I joined the military. When I was nineteen, I joined the army and was on active duty for five years and did a year tour in Iraq. I didn’t get to hunt while I was in the service, but there was not a day that went by where I didn’t think about hunting. I would often close my eyes for just a minute and imagine myself in Mossy Oak instead of my desert BDU’s with my Fred Bear bow in my hands instead of my M16. I missed the smell of the juniper and sagebrush.

I usually hunt on Walker Mountain which is about four miles from Chemult, Oregon. The drive takes about an hour and a half from my house which is a long drive after work. So, I decided to find a place closer to home and set up a tree stand. I scouted an area right outside of Sisters, Oregon up by Three Creeks Lake. During my scouting trip, I saw a real nice 3×4 buck when I was driving. He was bedded down about ten yards off the road. I got out to take a picture and he took off. I thought, “What the heck, I’ll follow him.” He led me to a thicket that opened up into a small meadow that was about thirty yards across both ways. The deer trails and sign were thick. There were a lot of beds in the meadow and along the walls of the thicket. I figured that this would be decent spot to set up a stand.

So, that weekend I set my Gorilla Kong tree stand up in a tree that was just on the wall of the thicket. I went hunting for a week up on Walker Mountain and didn’t see much to shoot. I came home from that hunt empty-handed. One evening, after work, my mom, my fiancée and I decided to go hunt in the meadow where I had put my tree stand. We cruised up there and they dropped me off on the road. I walked up to my stand while my mom and fiancée drove around hoping to find some deer. I climbed up into my stand and hadn’t been there more than thirty minutes when I saw a big rack coming through the trees at about seventy yards away. I could have sworn that my heart stopped. My first thought was that it was an elk! I waited for what seemed like an eternity until the buck finally gave me a good shot opportunity at thirty yards. I was shaking so bad that I could barely pull back my Fred Bear Instinct bow. The shot was good and the buck only ran twenty yards. I gave him about fifteen minutes before climbing down and claiming him.

I thank God and all of our soldiers for an opportunity at this magnificent trophy mule deer, without them none of this would be possible. My archery Oregon buck has been officially scored at 207 gross and 194 7/8 net typical Pope & Young.