Dan, Scarey story, I think you might have the worst hunt story.

Hatchetjack, Yours might be the funniest worst story.

I'm not sure which of my stories to share. I guess I'll share this one:

Friday’s plan (November 10, 2006) was to hunt one of my favorite stands. I hadn’t hunted there sincethe previousSaturday morning.I set up the LoneWolf standin the “Bean Pole” (the tree I shot last year’s buck from, a real whip of a tree, especially if it is windy) and wait for daylight. As it gets light, I see something odd, something out of place that I hadn’t noticed before. I think it is a deer but being colorblind, I’m not positive. It doesn’t move. I’m curious. I have a few deer drift through, some does within range, some little bucks. A group of four deer, three does and a buck start to work through. One of the does gets down wind of “the deer” and acts funny. She moves away and the buck goes over to check out “the deer”. Okay, curiosity killed the cat. I can’t take it any more and when they move off, I have to climb down and look. I walk over to find the body of a headless buck. Just great…….. but wait, the story gets better. How about a little history? My first visit to the area this year was on opening day, Oct.1. As I was using a light to climb into my stand whenI notice a vehicle pull up to the neighbor’s machine shed. 6:30 am on a Sunday? Seems rather odd that they needed something from the shed at that hour. I hunt until mid-morning, then hear a bunch of hammering. I start to wonder if someone is putting up a tree stand on the property, so decide to go investigate. A house in the neighboring housing development is getting re-roofed, I just must be paranoid! So I head back to my stand, taking a different path. What do I spy but a treestand! I’m pissed, to say the least. I climb up to tear it down and realize I need some tools to take down this homemade POS treestand. Even the steps are lag screws with rerod welded to them. I go to thecar for some tools and head back. As I’m approaching the stand, a glint on a tree catches me out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought it might be one of those reflective buttons people mark trails with, but closer examination reveals a Stealth trail cam. Cool, just scored me a cam!! I go over to the stand and start to tear it down. I fgure if theowner wants to claim it, he can getit backwhen heis cited fortrespassing. As I unboltthe treestandand toss it to the ground, I notice an old broken down fence at the base of the tree. Oops, the tree starts on the neighbor’s property, but leans over onto the property I hunt. Sitting in the stand, you are in the "airspace" of theproperty I have permission. The only thing to huntfrom this stand isacross the fence on the ground I huntand that is where the cam was hung. So I’m thinking that with the loss of the cam and the stand being torn down, the owner might get a hint. Well, they didn’t take the hint and rehung the stand, this time padlocking it. Well, I see this and think, there are tons of deer, I can share, right? I hung two No Hunting signs on the property, both aimed at the treestand. One had my name and cell phone number on it. I’m thinking this is another subtle hint to not shoot over over the fence (which is illegal in my state). Well, the headless buck made it right below the No Hunting sign with my name on it before he died of a shot to the right rear quarter. I blood trailed him back to a trail in plain view of the offending stand at 30 yards. He bled really hard and I’m seriously questioning if an arrow to the rear ham, even with a femoral artery hit would have anchored him that quick (archery season was all that was open). I grab my cell phone and start trying to call the CO, it is 8:30 am. At 3:30, I finally talk to a person when I call her number. I don’t know if she ever came out to look! Without an eyewitness, I can see that it would be a very hard case to prove who was responsible. From the condition of the carcass, the deer had been dead from 4 to 6 days (I had been out there hunting the previous Saturday and it wasn't there then).

So now my favorite hunting area has a dead headless poached buck laying there. I hunted the area a couple of more times after that. It sure was tough to sit there with that dead buck within sight. On November 24, 2006, I arrowed a 150 inch ten point from the bean pole stand, so I guess things worked out in the end. Some things are going to need corrected before next season, though. I got a chainsaw for Christmas (had an early Christmas last night with a relative is traveling).I'm thinking that tree is going to get trimmed vertically over the property line.