From a search and rescue mission to a big buck contest, Chet Carlson has memories with his bow

Dec. 19—MITCHELL — A passed-down bow has provided some exciting memories for Chet Carlson.

The Mitchell resident and former pastor at First Reformed Church shot the biggest buck of his life this fall, which led to presumably winning an online photo contest and a nice prize package.

Helping him win was a wave of support from friends and family voting for Carlson, who about a year ago had even more excitement when local search and rescue crews were called out to save him from sub-zero temperatures.

For years, ministry was Carlson's passion. Now 42 years old, Carlson bounced around the Upper Midwest serving at churches in Idaho, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota before moving to Mitchell in July 2018.

"Serving the Lord is my passion, but I kind of fell into this season of transition," Carlson said.

He quit his job as a lead pastor, and during that time, "God brought me into fishing and hunting more than I ever had been."

He grew up in Cameron, Wisconsin. His father was an influence to get involved in the outdoors, but he never really had much success bow hunting when he was younger. Instead, he was a rifle hunter.

As his enthusiasm toward hunting and the outdoors was growing after serving Mitchell's First Reformed Church for three years, a friend gave him an Xpedition bow. Another friend got him connected to a local landowner for hunting permission.

Last year was his first year getting back into bow hunting, and he chose a bitterly cold morning in December 2022 to scout out the new area his friend helped him gain access to.

"I told my wife I wasn't going hunting, but my dad always told me to be prepared when you're going out so I brought my new bow," Carlson said. "I ended up getting surrounded by like 100 deer in the field. And I lost track of time."

Carlson realized he would be late for work at his job, Cabela's, so he texted his manager and eventually shut off his phone in hopes to harvest a deer.

"Never texted my wife," he said. "Didn't even think of it."

Unable to reach her husband, Chet's wife, Heather, began to get worried. The temperature was well below zero with the wind chill and Chet was only supposed to be going out for a short scout trip.

Heather left work and realized Chet wasn't home, and she called Cabela's and someone told her Chet didn't come into work that day.

"She went into panic mode," Carlson said.

Search and rescue crews, along with an ambulance and police, were dispatched to the field, where Carlson never ended up getting a deer that day. When he checked his phone, he realized he had dozens of missed calls, both from his wife and 911. He also saw emergency vehicles parked all over the area he was hunting.

"I walked up and was completely embarrassed," he said. "Everyone else finds it funny, but my wife still does not. Now I have a life of dishes duty to repay her."

Fast forward to October this year, the second season of Carlson getting back into bow hunting.

Following a family trip to Minnesota, he returned to Mitchell on a Sunday evening and had about an hour or so left of legal shooting time to hunt. About 20 minutes into the impromptu sit, a big buck stepped out and Carlson shot it.

It's typical for bow hunters to allow a shot deer to be left alone awhile, so Carlson decided to go pick up his two kids to help track the animal's blood trail. The group didn't have success finding the deer right away, but luck was on their side.

As they left the blood trail and Chet planned to return in the morning to continue his search in the daylight, there was his buck. It was a 6x4, meaning it had 10 total points on its antlers, a memory to be captured with multiple photos.

"Having the kids there, finding it, my biggest buck, I was just super elated," he said.

Two weeks later, Xpedition announced an online photo contest for deer of the year. The winner would be chosen based on the photo that had the most votes from the public rather than the measurement, or score, of the antlers.

After he posted the picture for the competition, he started what he called the campaign. He asked friends and family via social media to support his photo and those friends asked friends to vote. There was an overwhelming amount of support, he said. He even had conversations with friends from decades ago just because of his big buck contest photo.

"What was so encouraging to me was that people started picking this up, not just saying they'd vote, but taking ownership to ask their friends to vote," he said. "The Lord gave me some chances to connect with a lot of people. It was a blessing to me."

As of Friday, the day the contest ended, Carlson had an overwhelming lead in votes. Now he's awaiting official word from Xpedition for a prize package worth over $2,500.

Included in the package is a new bow.

The old bow, the one that's seen so much excitement over the past two years, is getting passed down to his son, Chet said.