I guess I'm the excption to the rule. I dropped this 13-pter on opening day last year with a 20 guage on public land and I'll be the first to admit that it was pure luck! Due to school constraints, I had been to the spot only once before and found a thick down tree right near a bunch of track and decided to give it a shot.

Since all my hunting clothes was still back at my parent's house in Ohio, I hunted in long johns, jeans, Wolverine steel toe work boots, long sleeve shirt, an old denim coat with a collapsable $10 Cabela's orange vest over top and an orange stocking cap. I'm pretty damn sure I was the least professional/experiences looking hunter in the woods that day walking in, but when I dragged out my buck, I think I looked a little better... that is until I put him across the back of a 2-door cavalier

The only reason I even saw him was because someone/something must have spooked him because he ran into my field of view frequently glancing backwards over his shoulder as he was running perfectly broaside to where I was sitting. He slowed to a walk directly in front of me not more than 40 yards out and the only part that involved even the least bit of skill on my part was my shot which punctured both lungs and hit his heart as well.

If anyone were to ask me the difference between myself and any other hunter in the woods that same day, it would be luck, 100% luck and nothing more. For me to claim superior hunting ability and skill would be as ridiculous as a powerball winner claiming they won based on numerical picking skills!





PS. the blood-stained cavalier in the background is the one I mentioned that I drove him through downtown Des Moines on. You'd be amazed the looks you get when you're driving a buck (or a doe this year) through Des Moines at about noon on Saturday! Everything from flipped the bird to fist pumps with fist pumps out-numbering middle fingers by a slim margin.