Mindy Ekelund shot this 8-point, 155 pound buck at the first ever youth deer hunt at Savanna State Park
BY JOHN GRONES
Sport Editor
Thirteen-year-old McGregor High School student Mindy Ekelund shot the very first buck during the Savanna Portage State Park youth deer hunt. She was one of 15 youth, aged 12 to 15, that participated in the first ever hunt at the park.
This is Mindy’s second year hunting. Last year, she shot a doe and this year she shot a nice 8-point buck that weighed 154 lbs.
According to Mindy, the decision to hunt at the park was easy. Her mother Jacquie works at the Savanna Portage State Park in the office.
Mindy’s hunt was with her father Gordy. She noted that they scouted the day before for about a half hour. “We picked up deer sign on a ridge over by the beaver pond trail,” Mindy said. “There was buck sign all over and deer trails.”
On the day of the hunt, Mindy set up on the top of a hill and it didn’t take long before they heard the sounds of movement. “It was about 8:15. We weren’t out there long,” Mindy added. “We heard crunching on the other side of the hill.”
“We saw the buck, but it went where I couldn’t see it,” Mindy continued. “It was polishing its antlers on a downed branch for about five minutes. My heart was beating really fast.”
Mindy shared that she had the shakes a little bit, so she looked away to get her heart rate down. The deer approached and came into an opening, but she didn’t get a shot off. “Then it went through another opening and I shot.”
The shot was from 50 yards away and Mindy found blood on the ground, so she knew she hit him.
Local conservation officer Brent Speldrich was at the park that day, so he helped Mindy and Gordy track the deer. The first attempt didn’t go so well.
“We tracked it quite a ways and we had to go through a lot of thick woods,” added Mindy. “I lost my digital camera looking for it too. We looked for about an hour, but it took longer to find the deer.”
As it turned out, the group went back to the area they found blood and tried another direction and there it was.
After that, Park Manager Marty Torgerson helped them pull it out of the woods with his truck.
The buck Mindy shot wasn’t the only success her family had this hunting season. It turns out that her brother Nick shot a 9-point buck two weeks later during the adult hunt in the park.
Mindy noted that in addition to deer hunting, she also enjoys duck hunting and goose hunting in the fall.
Mindy also enjoys trap shooting. She is in the trap shooting league with her brother Nick, father Gordy, grandfather Herman, uncle Harry and her cousin Scott Besser. The team took third place in the league last year.
Mindy concluded by stating that she wanted to thank Brent for his help tracking the deer.
Next year, Mindy hopes to hunt in the park again. Assistant Park Manager Sandi Weller noted that there is a good chance they will hold the youth hunt again. “It will be determined after the adult hunt is over that is going on right now,” said Sandi, “but we will probably need to do another management hunt. The likelihood is good.”
Sandy noted that the park has had a number of management hunts. They had three muzzle load hunts in 1999, 2000, and 2002. In 2003 and 2004 they held an adult rifle hunt for does only and in 2005 and 2006 the rifle hunt has included bucks.
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