Art's compilation made me think harder (now my head hurts...not used to thinking [X(])

One year while gun hunting, I was sitting on a creek bank watching a field on the other side. I heard a noice, looked back behind me around the tree I was leaned back on, and scared the crap out of a deer that was only a few feet away. Scared the crap out of me to!

Out stalking bunnies one day (used to do that quite a bit--got to get at it again), and got within 20 yds or less of a nice cottontail. I drew, released, and the bunny dissapeared. I don't mean hopped into a bush, I mean flat out vanished like a puff of smoke. I couldn't believe it--everything felt so perfect! I had noticed my arrow skipping on down the gravel road I was on (on my brother's property, well off the public road). I stood there trying to figure out what happened, then finally went to retrieve my arrow (with broadhead). When I picked it up, it was covered in blood from one end to the other (who would have guessed a rabbit had that much blood in it?). I went back to where it was sitting when I shot, and there he lay, in a little ditch. It was an absoulte perfect broadside double-lung, and it had fallen dead in it's tracks without a quiver. The little ditch was just deep enough to hide him from view in the setting sun.

A few years ago I was in Northern Ontario on a moose hunt (with Kip and friends). My spot for the morning was a HUGE boulder where I had a little bush to hide me (ok, so it wasn't such a small bush if it was hiding me). From the top of it I could watch the cutover we were hunting. The one side was sloped just enough that I could clamber up it, the back side was a straight drop of maybe 20'. It was getting on up in the morning, around 9 am. The sun was coming up and warming me up, and I was getting sleepy..........then I heard an unmistakeable huff that made every hair on my body stand up. I was afraid to move--I'd never been around a bear, but I knew full well that's what it was. Some of the guys in camp were there to hunt bear, and we'd seen bear signs. It huffed again, and I began to wonder just how good bears were at climbing rocks--it sounded like he was in my back pocket! I sat there frozen for what seemed like forever, before I got the nerve to look behind me.....and he was gone. I'd probably nodded off and bobbed my head and alerted him--wish I'd got to see him at least!

The very best was a couple years ago when I got my first deer. That deer was 20+ years in the making (talk about a slow learner!). I'd been hunting most of my life, with rifle, shotgun, handgun, compound, recurve, and longbow. I'd killed numerous critters with each weapon (except for very few with a compound--didn't shoot one long), but it had never come together for me with a deer. I'd missed a few--one each with a compound, longbow, and handgun, and had watched gobs of them from blinds and tree-stands. Well, this one wasn't going in the record books, but it wouldn't have mattered to me if it had been a new world record--I couldn't have been happier.

I was in TN hunting with my buddy Tom (who was one of the bear hunters on the Canada trip). He'd set a stand on a mutual friends place, and it looked really good. Most of the place was a big meadow, with a few trees here and there out in it, bordered by a horse pasture on one side, and a woodline on the other. I was in the woodline, less than 10 yds. It was a 12' ladder stand, and when Tom set it it was really brushed in good. Well, the fellow that owns the property is an older gentleman and fellow bowhunter. He saw it and thought he might like to hunt from that stand one day, but he didn't like all the brush--he wanted to be able to see better--so he cleared it out like a living room floor! There was absolutely nothingbetween me and the field except a few little privet hedges. I figured what the heck, because with my luck with deer was so awful I'd never get a shot anyway.

The first evening we went, I saw a deer--a young doe--and she didn't follow the rules like she was supposed to. She came from the woods side and went around the tree behind me. All I could do was crane my neck to watch her walk off. I checked my watch.

The next evening I went to the same stand--I had something for that little doe, and aimed to give it to her! I checked my watch, and when it was getting about the same time I stood up (one reason I couldn't shoot at the doe--I was sitting and when I saw her she was too close for me to stand, and I couldn't get a shot in that direction while sitting). I got my bow up in the "ready" position so I wouldn't have to move much if any at all when she came out. Sure enough, right on schedule, I heard the "crunch, crunch, crunch" I'd heard the day before, coming from the same direction. However, she didn't follow the rules again! If it was that deer (I'm not sure), she never came into view. I was looking and looking, trying to find her, when something waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy across the field caught my eye. I saw a deer topping a hill in the horse pasture that was the adjoining property. From then on out it was like they try to make it look on the videos. He jumped the fence and headed for the wood line, behind where I was sitting. It was a good 200 yds or more when I first saw it. He never changed his pattern--take a few steps, grab a wad of grass, take a few steps, grab a wad of grass.....he wasn't in a hurry, but he was on a mission. He went to the woodline, then instead of going in starting coming up the side, still following the same pattern.....step, step, step, chomp.........that is, until he was almost in my shooting lane. His head was sticking out, but his body was behind the bush, and no way I could thread an arrow through it. He'd come to a dead stop and began looking all around at eye level. I figured "well, this is it--my luck is holding strong". I honestly almost threw my bow at him--here I was,just 12' off the ground, in the wide open, less than 10 yds away. Then he took one step, followed by another..... I don't remember drawing or releasing, but I do remember seeing my arrow in flight, then it dissapeared. The deer, which turned out to be an 8-point, ran about 30 yds up the woodline, turned like he was going in, and stopped. He looked around like he was thinking "what the heck was that?", then he swayed, stumbled, reared up on his hind legs, and fell over backwards. When he reared up, I would have sworn I saw my arrow sticking out. It looked like I got about 4-6" of penetration. When he hit the ground, I was thinking "get up stupid--you ain't hurt!" and stood there puzzled about why my arrow didn't go deeper. Then it hit me--that buck was dead. I almost jumped out of the stand, then caught myself--I'd have broken both ankles at best. Then my knees got weak and I had to sit down. Tom had been watching from his stand, and although he couldn't see me when I shot, he had watched thee deer come down, heard the arrow hit, and heard the deer crash. I was still sitting there when he climbed out of his stand, walked across the meadow to my deer, kicked it, and looked at me wondering what the heck I was still there for! I'm here to tell you--if that tree had caught on fire, I would have just had to sit there and burn, because my knees were on vacation. I finally got it together enough to climb down and inspect my trophy--he was beautiful! An average 2.5 year old TN buck, we guessed him to weigh 165-175#. He had an unusual rack--tall and narrow, and pretty small for his body size. I didn't care--I was on cloud #9. Then I started looking for what was left of my arrow. I figured it was in a million pieces (wood)after he reared up and fell over like that, but I couldn't find even a splinter. By this time the sun is going down, and I was once again puzzled--where the heck was my arrow? I finally went back to where he was standing when I shot, and there it was buried in the ground. When I got home I measured to the last little wad of dirt stuck on the shaft--it had gone at least 7 5/8" into the dirt, after passing through and nicking a rib on both sides. To this day I have no clue what I saw when he reared up--my arrow was painted cadium yellow with yellow feathers and a yellow nock, so it's not like it favored any of the sticks and twigs laying around.

Anyhow, those are some of my highlights.

Chad