THE LONER WAS  MY TROPHY
     BY FRED LEDIN

This extra ordinary day for me happened to be the third day of our Wisconsin deer and bear hunting season, a quiet still morning with just a few dry oak leaves rustling in a light breeze that were left over from last fall's beautiful panorama of colors.  But just to reminisce for a while, lets say a few dozen years back on my hunting career you will notice I'm no novice when it comes to stalking or still hunting for deer.  I have hunted the Wisconsin White Tail for
fifty five years and have shot my share of them in these number of years and what might interest the reader is the odd number and caliber of guns I used through the years.  One of the weapons I used was a 40-65 Winchester and when I shot at a large buck standing by a pine stump all I saw when I pulled the trigger was a black cloud of smoke. Happily for the buck he left for the back forty.  I also hunted with a 45:70, a 32:40 and a 45:90.  I just read a article in the sports magazine that sportsmen are aiming to get a law passed so these obsolete guns can  be put
to use again during the hunting season.
     A little explanation for the  title of my story follows.  Some of my fellow hunters and neighbors had seen this buck on more then one occasion either crossing the highway as they were driving or crossing some field and he would always travel alone.  One evening early last fall at the start of the rutting season I was watching a field with binoculars where a spike buck a doe and her fawn were feeding when all of a sudden this large buck walked out of the woods and he must have given some kind of signal because they hightailed it as if they had been shot at.  But he was not disturbed.  He lingered a little while and it was so dark I could barely make out
his form as he slunk back into the forest.
     As I stated at the beginning of my story this was a quiet morning and the snow we had received a few days before had melted except for a few patches on the north side of the hills.  I had been scouting around the Sioux River country on the first day of opening and I came across a good runway and noticed one unusual large track. I made my mind  I would come back to this runway on Tuesday.  I started out at about 8 o'clock that morning and located a nice large round knoll to stand on.  I could not see more than 70 yards in any direction because from this vantage point I had to look or squint through a forest of trees composed of white birch and aspen.
After standing at this place for over half an hour I heard some shooting in a distance to my left.  Another fellow opened up with a volley of shots to my right but a long way off.  As I stood there another 15 minutes
I was getting so cold.  I was just about to leave when I saw a movement way down in the birch grove. I was sure it was a grey fox or rabbit crossing over a knoll.  I stood their with my 257 rem.roberts rifle poised for what seemed like hours for he was coming very slow with his nose to the ground most of the time. All of a sudden I spotted those massive antlers as he raised his head and by this time I should have been shaking plenty but I was cool as they say.
He kept coming with head down.  I gave out a low whistle which startled him and he raised head.  Again all I could see to shoot at was his neck.  I took a good steady aim fired and he stumbled and fell by
a large Lombardi Poplar.

                        Fred Ledin