What a great topic, thanks for thinking of it Cayugad.

Here is my log for the campfire...

Two years ago I went deer hunting for the first time. Still new to BP, I did not feel confident enough with the flintlock and put in for a centerfire tag instead.

So there I was, all by myself, sitting against a mesquite tree with my Ruger 30-06 on my lap, wondering wtf should I be doing now?

The area was actually pretty dense with trees and bush with visibility down to about 60 yards. Feeling kind of tired I let myself doze off for a few minutes.

I woke to hear the sound of something grazing behind me. I could feel a soft thump in the ground when the animal moved.

The deer was behind me and outside of my peripheral vision. I decided to just wait until it came in to view. My heart was pounding, thinking this must be a HUGE buck to make the ground thump like that.

It got closer but still I could not see it.

I got lightheaded as my heart started beating faster. My back felt terribly vulnerable and I desperately wanted to turn and look to see what was behind me. But I dared not for fear of scaring off what must be a trophy sized buck.

The thumping got more intense.

Holy sh!t I didn't know a heart could beat this fast...

and then just as I thought it was going to come in to my field of vision...

...it mooed.

I snapped around only to look right into the face of a damn cow.

It took a good thirty minutes for the shaking to settle down, but I spent most of it having a good laugh

~Robert