Charles Ray,
Deer hunting, especially opening morning is such a special and anticipated thing for me, I really don't think too much about the dark. But, this happened to me 4 season's ago.

My goal that year was to be the first person in the woods. I had figured out where everyone else would be hunting, and I wanted them to move the deer in my direction. I had every little detail planned out for the next morning, and I was having problems getting to sleep. The alarm went off at 3:00 in the morning, and I was out of bed and on my way to to woods.

I planned to be in the tree at 4:30 A.M, and sure enough there I was at my reflective markers about to make my trek to my stand. When I got to my tree, I walked out in front of the stand to hang my scent bombs, and when I was through, I turned to head back to the tree. All of a sudden everything looked foreign to me. Even very familiar woods look different in the dark. I had obviously ventured off of my shooting lane because I was tripping over heavy brush, and I actually fell once to my knees. I had left my gun at the base of the tree where my stand was.

I was shining my light at the height in the trees where my stand should be, and as I turned I shown the light into what appeared to be the face of an old man sitting in a tree just a few feet away from me. After the immediate rush, and the skipping of the beat of my heart, I realized it was just a big owl who was sitting there watching me stumble all over myself in the dark.

To make a long story short, I sat down and finally got my bearings, and somehow I had circled around to the rear of my stand, and I was probably no further than 15 yards away from my stand the whole time, just on the opposite side of the tree.

That morning at about 7:00, I awoke to a big doe staring right at me about 10 or so yards to my right. I had only dozed off for what I thought was a minute or so, and I think that deer was attracted to my snoring. She and another deer I heard but did not see bounded away as I clumsily came to. I don't care how cool you think you are, if you wake up and have a deer staring straight at you, it is impossable to get off a shot.

So what is the moral of this story?

An owl can only kill you if you have a bad heart, and 4:30 is probably a little too early especially if you don't get good sleep the night before.

C. Davis