Mr. October - Case Closed.

I went out to the farm Saturday to fill my doe tag.I saw a couple does, but I couldn't get a positive I.D. on a mature doe, so I held off, and eventually got hungry and headed back to the car for lunch. When I top the hill, I see 2 vehicles with about 10 guys loading up their gear to leave. They apparently had just finished driving out the thickets near the road. I recognized the one guy's car from archery season.

I walk down there and we all start talking - then, this guy says to me - "Hey, you're the guy who hit that big 10 point out here, right?" "I saw you finally found him." "Heck of a rack on that buck."

My jaw hits the ground.

"umm.... I ... I... Never..."

He says "Well, SOMEBODY found him - he's laying right out there in the cornfield with the skullcap cut out. Big Ten point, right?I knew he was yours, so I let him alone. I just figured it was you who cut the antlers out."

I almost puked.

The farmer just cut the corn off two days before buck season. (5 days after I'd already given up on my hunt for Mr. O). After the corn was off, it revealed his final resting place. The farmer mowed right around him, leaving about 10-15 stalks of corn standing, which marked the spot. The guy pointed across the field and there it was, plain as day. One lone spot in the field corner with stalks still standing.

Head hanging, I moped out across this cornfield to the back corner where I hunt, and sure enough, there he lay. I was sick. Maybe 10 rows deep. The entrance wound was still visible - he was hit a little low, and just at the back of the liver, with the arrow angled out through the paunch. Maybe 3" behind where I was aiming. He piled up about 200-250 yards from where I took the shot, crossed a little flat, climbed a 20' bank, crossed through a little thicket and slipped into the corn to die. Still not sure whatever become of my arrow. He may have dropped it in the thick stuff somewhere. I didn't see it at the carcass, but it was a rotted mess, and a piece of arrow could've still been inside. The skullcap looked to be freshly cut, so I'd presume that whoever cut the rack out, they couldn't have been there more than a week ago.

While searching for him, I literally walked within 10 yards of him at least two times. I never smelled him, never knew he was there. If the farmer had cut the corn before I gridded it out, I'd have found him easily.

I stopped by the farmer's house to ask if she knew who had the rack, but she had no idea. I asked all those other guys to ask around. I'd just like to see it one time.

What if? What if he'd have cut the corn 5 days earlier, and the fields had been cleared when I spend the last day searching? What if the wind would have been out of the east on the two days that I walked past the west side of him? Would I have smelled it? What if he'd have only went 3 rows deep? What if I wouldn't have waited until the last day to go down there to fill my doe tag?

The cornstalks around him didn't appear to be trampled or flattened out, so I'd suppose he didn't suffer long - just tucked his legs under and went to sleep.

After that, I figured that was the closure that I was looking for, to end the 2006 season. I closed the book on Mr. October, and now I'm ready to move on. Even though I didn't get anything, Saturday's hunt was the best day I could've spent in the woods. Driving home, I felt so empty, but yet so relieved to have it end. I knew I hit that deer. If I could've even found a drop of blood anywhere, anything at all, an arrow, a piece of hair, I'd have found him. Deep down, I was looking for confirmation, one way or another. I got it on Saturday.