I’ve been hunting for 25 years, though because of the military and a year of college out of state, I’ve only been able to hunt 19 of those seasons.  When I was in high school, I missed a buck, several years ago, maybe even 11 years ago, I missed two bucks with my shot gun.  The next year I shot a doe on the very last day of the extended doe season.

This year, I’ve been seeing a lot of buck activity in my field.  Nine days before the season started, I saw four bucks in the same part of my field.  That made me excited, anxious.  Well, on opening day I saw 13 deer, #13 being a little spike.  My son and I both let him go.  I was proud of him for doing that.  Spikes will be bigger next year.  The next few times out I only saw a few does.  Tonight I left my office at 4:50pm, went to Plumbs to buy cat food because if I didn’t feed the cats before I went out, they follow me out.  I came home and changed quickly before walking out to my blind.  On the way out, I saw three does.  They saw me and took off.  Once I got sat down, the wind picked up, I was thinking “Man is it cold, I am cold, what am I doing out here?”  I readjusted my hat and stuck with it, after all, since I got such a late start, I wouldn’t be out that long anyway.  As I sat there watching and waiting it was getting darker and darker.  Then I noticed a shape.  I looked at it through the scope and the shape was a deer.  I watched it walk in closer, hoping for antlers.  I just couldn’t see any.  Once I thought “was that an antler?”  I kept watching and hoping.  It changed direction a little, wait, was that an antler?  Oh wow, it is, that is a buck.  As I clicked the safety off, he started to trot.  Shoot, a running deer, I really don’t want to shoot at a running deer, but he isn’t going very fast.  Maybe if I just keep pace with him I can take the shot.  Bang, flash of red, huge cloud of smoke, where did he go?  I can’t see anything running away from here.  Where did he go?  A scan of the hilltop with the scope doesn’t show anything.  Wait, is that a pile of horse manure?  That pile wasn’t there earlier.  More magnification with the scope, sure looks like a pile of manure, but it wasn’t there earlier.  That has to be him.  I quickly got out of my blind and walked over there.  I was nearly on top of him before I could see him.  I did hit him, in fact I dropped him where he was.  I don’t know how in the world I dropped him, but he fell right down.  I nudged him to make sure he was dead.  I looked to see if there was breathing.  I grabbed onto his horn and drug him about 10 yards.  Changed my hand position and drug him another 10 yards.  Then I thought, he is dead, why am I dragging him, he is in an open field.  I can go get my truck, besides, I didn’t bring my knife, I need to field dress him out in the field so there is less mess near the house.  So I dropped him there and went and got the truck, field dressed him by headlights and then Jesse came out to see where I was so long after dark and helped me put him in truck and we drove up for photos. The buck should have been a six point, but ended up as a five.