Cameraman Steve Jones waits to shoot a buck with his only weapon, a camera.

Of course, the human scent left behind by such a project can spook wise old bucks, so it was imperative that I create the diversion well before my hunt. I knew I'd be hunting in November, so I made sure I'd completed all of the work by September, giving the deer time to acclimate to the off-ramp.

Choosing an appropriate tree for the cameraman's stand is often a struggle, too. Best-case scenario is a stand above, behind, and 6 to 10 feet to the right or left of the hunter. Well, in my area, it's tough to find a single tree in the right spot, much less two trees in the preferred configuration. My only real option was to put Steve's stand on the opposite side of my favorite "kill tree."

My strategy also included staying completely away from the area until Steve arrived. I wanted to ensure that when I slipped in on Day One of the TV hunt it would be a surprise attack. We'd have only five days, and we'd have to hunt the area hard when the time was right. I didn't want to pressure those deer before it was necessary.

THE HUNT STARTED with a test of Steve's nerve. Bowhunter readers may remember the homemade cable car I used to cross the river in a past story. At one time I had to wade the river, but it's just too deep and fast, so I ran a steel cable across the river from tree to tree. I designed a crude cart that allows me to ride the cable from one bank to the other. While I had told Steve about my invention the previous evening, his first real experience came in the morning.

Well before daylight the next morning, I strapped Steve and his expensive camera to the cart with a safety belt and pushed him off the eight-foot-high bank into the inky darkness. Surprisingly, there was no physical resistance, but I think I heard a faint whimper as Steve blindly zipped out over the five-foot-deep river.

"It was pitch dark, and I couldn't tell where the water was. The only thing I was worried about was having my hind-end dip into the river at mid-span," Steve told me later.

Once Steve was safely on the other bank, he sent the cart back for me, and we were easily settled into our stands long before dawn.

We'd just gotten rid of the full moon, but morning activity was still fairly slow until we glimpsed the big buck just after 8 a.m. I thought we'd have to wait all day, but just before noon a 3x3 buck walked out of the bedding area and through an opening about 60 yards to the south. Minutes later the large buck I'd seen earlier showed up trailing the smaller buck. His left antler was a mirror image of the right. His rack wasn't very wide, but that didn't matter. I immediately bleated to draw the buck's attention to my doe decoy, certain he'd come on a string.

No such luck. The buck had a clear view of the decoy, but he disregarded her. Instead, he scratched his back with his G-2 and then groomed his fur with his tongue as if he were going to a fashion show. The 3x3 was still in sight, and when he walked southeast the 5x5 followed him rather than investigate the doe. It stung to be ignored, especially with a decoy and the perfect wind. As he walked away, I decided it was that buck or no buck in Minnesota.

Continued -- click on page link below.