Imperial Clover and a Little Luck Pay Off
By Hugh McAloon

I’ve often snickered at hunters who tell me they are hunting only one buck, and it’s the only buck they will use their tag on. I figured those hunters were actually lucky enough to actually shoot a great deer or used it as an excuse for an empty tag. Almost all of that began to change in July of 2004. While I’ll never go so far as to say I was hunting “only one buck,” the one I spotted in early July was certainly the “one” I was going to concentrate on.

The first part of my equation starts with having land to manage in Wisconsin. While some people will argue you need massive tracts of land to make it work, my “little” 40-acre piece has provided me a great deal of opportunity and satisfaction. The 40 is actually two back-to-back 20 acre parcels (1/8-mile wide by a 1/2-mile long). The entire north side is a hardwood ridge sloping south to 18 acres of what was once a fallow field. For three years I watched deer move across my piece from one neighbor’s clear-cut (bedding area) to another neighbor’s food sources. Very few deer, if any, called my land home.

There were three things I wanted to create. Food, cover and water. The land was in a managed forest program at the time I purchased it (1996) and was not scheduled for a cut until 2004. So I decided to focus on establishing quality food first.

The spring of 1997 forever changed the “landscape” of my deer hunting. I surveyed numerous individuals within the deer hunting community asking for advice on food plots. Imperial Whitetail Clover was by far the most-recommended product. Numerous experts also told me to combine Imperial Clover with a late season crop such as corn. The first year my 18 tillable acres consisted of five acres of Imperial Clover and five acres of corn. Today those five acres of Imperial still thrive, there are always three to five acres of corn and the remaining eight acres offer a variety of crops/experiments.

Without doubt, however, it has been the Imperial Whitetail Clover that has really improved my deer hunting. From spring through fall, the Imperial Clover attracts more deer to my property then any of the other food sources. Did I mention there are lots of deer in my area? The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources estimates are up to 40 per square mile and it’s not uncommon to see 50 deer in my five acres of Imperial Clover!

Fast forward to a summer evening in last July. While out for a walk, I viewed a really nice 9-point buck crossing the dirt road between my property and the neighbor’s. As I admired what I figured to be a 130-inch deer, I saw some movement in the heavy cover of the ditch. Behind the 9-point buck popped out a deer with what looked to be a large rack, but something was wrong. Having forgot my binoculars I couldn’t determine what made his horns look so “funny.” He almost appeared to have a double main beam on his right side.

Both bucks were cutting through the clear-cut and actually headed toward my food plots. The very next night my son and I were watching the Imperial plots from a distance, and to our amazement, both bucks showed up along with numerous smaller bucks, does and fawns. I was right! The big buck had a double main beam on his right side. We enjoyed the presence of these two bucks and many others (our best night saw 12 bucks in the Imperial at one time) the entire summer, until mid-August!

Aug. 9 marked the beginning of the next phase of my land management program – selective cutting began on my woods. For the next three weeks loggers, chain saws and heavy equipment occupied my woods. While I knew this was good for the long term, I kept telling myself it couldn’t have happened at a worse time! Would “Double Beam,” as my son and I had tabbed him, disappear? The loggers assured me that wouldn’t be the case, and I know that a chain saw can actually be a dinner bell for whitetails. However, both bucks disappeared - both from our view and from our trail cameras. What had I done?

The loggers finished and left the area on Sept. 7. With our archery season scheduled to open on Sept. 18, I could only hope things would return to normal.

The select cut was awesome. All of the acorn producing mature oak trees were left along with my key stand trees on the edge of the food plot. Would the big bucks return?

Another roll of film revealed more does, fawns, a couple of year-old bucks…and the last photo on the roll, Sept.13 at 1:47 a.m., was Double Beam in the Imperial plot!

Stands had been hung for weeks, and the next four days seemed like months. With the launch of Deer & Deer Hunting TV on the schedule for the summer of 2005, we had a film crew in town for the opener. I had also lost an archery shooting contest with my son’s 14-year-old friend, Joey. The bet allowed him to join us opening weekend (just wanted to put pressure on the young lad who shoots better than anyone I know).

I planned on sending the two camera men with the boys in hopes they would get a chance at either of the two larger deer, or in Joey’s case, his first deer ever. What we hadn’t planned for was the unseasonably warm weather. Opening night brought 80-degree temperatures and we didn’t see many deer. Joey was able to harvest his first two deer that night, a doe to fill his “earn-a-buck” requirement and a spike buck. Both deer moved to the Imperial plots and he made perfect shots under the pressure of the camera.

I took a stand that night just trying to stay out of the way on the far corner of the food plots. Yup, you guessed it, the big 9-point lingered within 25 yards of my stand for over a half hour. I kept waiting for Double Beam but he never showed up. As the weather warmed more the next day and throughout the entire next week we saw very few deer and the camera crew went home disappointed.

Luckily, a friend called me and said he would be in the area digging ponds, and that if I wanted it done, now would be the time. The third part of my land management program would be complete with water in the form of three large ponds. Excavation began on Sept. 21 and concluded on the 22. Unfortunately, the largest of the three ponds would eat up nearly a half acre from my Imperial plot. It was hard to do, but this was all in the master plan to make my land a better deer destination, and I certainly plan on planting more Imperial next spring.

On Sept. 22, maybe because of the noise of the excavator, trail cameras captured both the big bucks on the opposite end of my property heading into the corn. I was amazed that Double Beam was still carrying all of his velvet. The very next night the camera captured the 9-point on the exact same trail during shooting hours. Football had kept both my son and I from hunting during that week, but you can imagine his excitement to be in a tree overlooking the spot where we had photographed both bucks within the last three nights. I decided to sit in a stand back by the Imperial Clover plots just so I could keep an eye on the deer activity and wait for Dustin to come running towards me in excitement.

With one hour of shooting light left, I watched Double Beam enter the Imperial plot 100 yards from my stand and feed with a dozen other deer until dark. He was still in full velvet just adding to my desire for one of us to get lucky! Dustin never saw a single deer enter the corn.

Good news, he’s still home. Bad news, we never could pick the right stands. The very next night Dustin occupied the stand overlooking the trail where Double Beam entered the food plot the previous night. I watched from a distance as numerous deer including several small bucks moved past him. As I approached his stand at dark deer ran in every direction, and he told me a very large bodied deer had moved to the edge of the food plot after shooting light. He was sure it was Double Beam.

Football didn’t allow the youngster to hunt during the week so I jumped “his” stand on Monday and Tuesday night with no luck. Dustin kept telling me to move east to another stand. It’s also the same trail where we captured our original trail camera photo on Sept. 13. I remember him telling me, “Dad, he keeps moving east down the ridge, that’s the next trail he will come out on.”

I wasn’t able to hunt again for another week, Tuesday, Oct. 5 to be exact. It was a terribly windy night with gusts from the west reaching up to 20 miles per hour. I wasn’t even going to sit, but remembered a similar night several years back where I killed a nice buck. I decided to just go sit and see if anything would move into the food plots. My hesitation got me on stand a good half hour later than normal. Combined with the west wind I chose the stand closest to my house on the far-east end of the property, the same stand where Joey shot his buck opening night. Unfortunately, the new pond was dug near this stand resulting in a very small shooting lane. Now, while we’ve all taken a stand with the notion that we “just want to see what’s going on,” we all also know the truth is we hope to shoot something as well.

Even though I could see 75 percent of my food plots from this location and the wind was right, I was really doubting my decision to sit here. Dustin’s words, “Dad, he keeps moving east down the ridge, sit in the other stand,” kept ringing in my head. The heavy west winds seemed to subside, so with only one hour of daylight left I decided to climb down and sneak 150 yards along the food plot edge to the desired stand. Luckily, I didn’t spook any deer on the walk and was in the stand with about 50 minutes of shooting light left.

The west winds picked up again, but the main trail entering the Imperial plot was 20 yards west of my location, so I would be fine if the deer entered there but in trouble if anything entered to my east. Sitting quite comfortably with my bow on a hanger, I watched squirrels and chipmunks hard at work until a loud snap of a twig directly behind me warned of something other than a squirrel.

Less than 20 yards up the ridge behind me stood Double Beam. With the steep angle of the ridge the buck was actually on my same level. If standing and facing that direction, it would have been an easy 18-yard broadside shot. The buck glanced at his back trail, and I quickly grabbed my bow. The next time he looked away I stood. Still facing the wrong direction I had to reposition my feet and move my bow around the double tree to get a shot. The buck started down the ridge at an angle to my east into some thick underbrush. There would be no chance now for a shot until he moved into the food plot directly down wind of me. I had to completely turn my vision and body angle away from the big buck and hoped he wouldn’t wind me before entering the food plot.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, snap! I heard a twig break directly under my stand. The buck had changed his entry course to the food plot and came out immediately under my stand. The under story brush prevented any type of shot as the buck was directly under me. I drew my bow and took aim as he moved into the food plot hoping he would turn and provide an angle to his vitals. The further the buck moved into the food plot, the more an overhanging branch started to interfere with any type of shot. The buck was literally a few steps from being obscured by the branch when, at 26 yards, he turned to provide the slightest of shot angles to his vitals.

The arrow flew perfect and buried to the knock in the exact spot I was aiming. The buck bolted parallel to the field edge back to the west and my immediate thoughts were “he’s hit perfect, but the shot had to be high and back so he won’t bleed much right away, keep a close eye on exactly where he runs.” The deer turned up the trail just west of my stand where I had hoped he would enter and started up the steep ridge. Less then 15 yards up the ridge the buck collapsed and died no more then 20 yards from my tree. Honestly, it’s the first time I have ever screamed in the woods. Then I kept telling myself, “I got Double Beam, I got Double Beam.”

We’d later find out the big buck was a 7-year-old hermaphrodite. He had both male and female organs and probably wasn’t producing enough testosterone to induce rubbing. Since the antlers were still in full velvet, I had to obtain a special permit from the Department of Natural Resources. The conservation warden suggested the “buck” may have actually lived several years of his life without antlers.

He/she truly is the deer of a lifetime and when you consider all of the factors, I truly am very lucky to have harvested such a great animal. My luck doesn’t end there as I’d be remiss not to mention how lucky I am to have a son who shares my passion for deer hunting. I called Dustin and his exact words were “You got Double Beam? Way to go dad.” I’m also very lucky to have a fiancée who is not a hunter but fully appreciates my passion for the sport and tolerates all of my “gone” time.

Her first words with a great deal of excitement in her voice were, “You got that big buck, the one in the picture you’ve been carrying around in your pocket for the last two weeks?”