TroopA

It was October 16, 2003 and my friends and I were constructing a camp here in Louisiana - the slab was poured, the frame was up and we were set to begin adding the walls / roof. We hunted each morning and sometimes in the evenings for that week and on that morning - the 16th - I missed a 4 point in the woods of the management area. Bummed, I told my friends that I had a good mind to go sit in the back of our property that evening and wait for the doe which we'd been seeing every night to come out.
After more work that day, we decided that we'd cook our meal for the night and let things quiet down and I got the go ahead to head to the back of the property to wait for the doe. (We named the doe 'Sally'). The back of the property was about 150 - 200 yds from the back frame of our camp, and was all high grass which eventually turned into woods. One of my friends broke out his video camera and wanted to try to just capture a deer on film. Before I headed out to await the doe's arrival, we made some funny little commercials as if we had sponsors - Mathews bows, Miller Lite beer, Blue Runner Red Beans..etc. Then, as I headed out, my friends sat on the 15 ftscaffold we had set up and began filming.
I sat on a folding chair with a toilet seat attached to it (you can guess what we used this for) - we called it the 'Crapmaster' - and carved me out a small hole in the grass with a little shooting lane. We had been throwing corn out for a while, so if the doe indeed came out I'd let it come to the corn so we could get good footage. The corn was about 20 yds from my postion.
Sure enough at 1815 I heard something in the grass and began calming my throbbing heart. For a couple of minutes nothing happened. Then, I saw the grass start moving and a head pop out. It was a spike and he was about 30 5 yds away. I sat there and kept glancing at my friends on the scaffold and I could see the camera manwas catching this on film. So I waited for him to come a little closer, but he wouldn't. It was getting dark, so I decided to take the shot. I concentrated so hard I thought I would pass out. But I let the arrow go and it found it's mark behind the shoulder - the deer fell in it's tracks and didn't move. Needless, to say I was elated - for this was my first deer with a bow AND IT WAS ON FILM!! WOOHOO!!

We kept watching the tape over and over again in disbelief that 3 coonasses actually caught a deer kill on film. You could hear my friend say, "He's down!! He got it!! There was another one in the grass, too!! But we were so thrilled with the kill that we never really payed that much attention to the deer in the back.

It was a week later that my Uncle had the copy of the CD and called me over. When I got to his house he and his son were sitting next to the TV with all the lights off ---- he didn't have to say a word, I could see the massive antlers hovering above the grass on the deer in the grass. (Probably 150 class).

Can you imagine getting your first bowkill on film, and also getting the buck of a lifetime hiding right behind it on film? Of course the 'what if's' were flying. But Ididn't see it and my friends didn't see it at the time of the kill.

Awesome. Maybe I'll get it another day. It's just great to have this captured on film and watch it every year to get pumped up!!

Oh, I had written on my feather before going out, the name 'Sally'. But beings it was a buck, I ripped off the 'Ly' and kept the 'Sal'.. Itnow known as the Sal Buck.