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After getting drawn for the city of St. Cloud archery hunt in summer of 2009 many hours were spent scouting the city land that was open to hunting.  One spot in particular was a perfect deer funnel with developments on both sides of the swamp that forced deer through a narrow channel that could be covered with my Mathews Drenalin.  The first few times sitting in this stand proved that this indeed was a great funnel, even though I did not see a buck worth shooting.  On Thursday November 5,  I was able to sneak into this stand for one last hunt before gun season.  I was in my stand by 3:00 and at 3:20 this nice buck came out of the cattails 130 yards down from my stand.  He made a small circle around the swamp checking a scrape and making a few small rubs and then slipped back into the cattails.  Nothing else moved until 4:40 and then the same nice buck came back out of the swamp and was slowly making his way along the edge of the swamp towards my funnel.  I was getting a little worried about dark encroaching so I did a series of grunts and his head snapped back and he started stomping his way straight to me.  About 50 yards out he turned and started to swing around me to get downwind.  I ranged the trail he was on at 45 yards and when he came around a clump of trees downwind from my stand and stopped I let my arrow fly.  It was a perfect shot and he only went 20 yards and tipped over.

Jon Mueller
St. Joseph, MN
10 Pt.  225 lbs.
November 5, 2009