Sept. 1st was bow opening in our area and I got my first deer ever on Sunday Sept. 2nd. Haven't put much effort into hunting since then to let things calm down. One of my friends put out corn every few days at another stand a couple hundred yards from me on the other side of the road and several deer were tearing it up. I was ready with the 12ga and slugs to get my second deer on gun opening.

Saturday the 15th, opening gun day. He pulls up and parks in my third driveway about 5:15, still dark and pouring rain. He and his newly acquired girlfriend start walking to his stand and make their left into the woods, I come behind about 5 minutes and turn to the right to go to mine. I get into the stand and settle in, umbrella out and not getting wet in the least.

Just after first light, not even 15 minutes, I hear him pop off a shot from his 30.06. I give him two or three minutes and call him, no answer. Put my phone away and readjust my 12ga in case something comes out. Phone starts vibrating, don't get it in time and it's him. Call back, no answer. Put phone away, two minutes later it rings again. Finally got to it this time and it's him. He's usually a calm, polite nice kid but not this time. Right off he lights into how he's got a "big a$$ buck" and can't find the trail.

Out of the stand, climb down and walk back to the house. Take off the harness, get the deer drag and walk back up into the woods where his stand is. The hit spot has good blood and two or three nice pieces of bone. I ask him where he hit it....."Broadside in the shoulder." I was thinking 20 or 30yds tops as a shoulder shot should have left it at least unable to run very far. Problem was, no more blood. Thirty minutes, pouring rain, hands and knees and we finally found a little blood.Foot by foot, hands and kneeswe followed what little trail there was. Every so often we'd find a big patch and then it would be tiny droplets. We followed this thing through thickets with trails smaller than doggie doors, felt like we were sneaking through a haunted trail for 5year olds. After about 200yds, we step into an opening of chest high grass, me leading and him off to the left. Up pops the buck, close enough I could have grabbed him and rode him away. We jumped him. I looked at the guy and told him he was full of crap, there was no way that deer was hit broadside in the shoulder, and still be running on both front legs with all of the bone we'd found out of it. He fessed up, it may have been a bad shot.

After jumping it, the deer dropped and tried to bed down about ten yds away from us and he tried to jump it and cut it's throat. All this while I'm holding a shotgun with a loaded slug, and all he had to do was take off the safety. After getting a hoof to the head and wrestling the deer for about five minutes, mind you I was nearly rolling around laughing by now, I suggested he just shoot it again. He did and it was over. Drag it back out through the thicket and trails and after getting it into the open I started looking at it closely.

More questioning brought out the true story. He was taking the scope cover off and the elastic snapped it together and the deer made him. Instead of sitting still he moved the rifle to get on the shoulder and it turned to run. He hit in it back right hip quartering away. Up through the gut and out the ribs on the left side. He didn't hit a single vital organ. I could have slapped him. Instead he field dressed the deer with a three inch lockblade and nothing else. After he was done I let him load it on the four wheeler to carry back to the house.

By this time it was almost 10am. Morning hunt wasa bust, but he did get his biggest deer he's ever killed. It ended up being a six point, maybe three years old, with a fairly thick rack so close to being out of velvet that it still had dried blood on it's antlers. The new girlfriend was asleep when he pulled the trigger and pretty much seemed to want to leave while we were tracking the deer. I made it clear to him, if he left before that deer was found he'd leave without some part of his body. She, on the other hand, was more than welcome to take a hike back to the truck.