  urlLink While Im waiting for this years deer season, which I plan to report regularly on-even doing live reports from my deer stand with my blackberry-I decided to post some pics and descriptions of some of my favorite memories from previous hunting and fishing trips. This one ranks very high on my list of favorites, partly because it is my first really nice deer (dont laugh if youre from IL, IA, or Canada or some other place where the deer get huge! ) A few years ago, my hunting buddy got a beautiful 8-point, nicer than any deer I had ever taken.
So I hunted my heart out for three years after that...often staying in my stand from dawn till dark...trying to match his deer. I tell you, sitting on a small, cramped deer stand for 12 hours or more is tough. You cant eat or drink much for breakfast and you can only take small sips of water all day or youll have to go to the bathroom in the woods, which is not good for deer hunting.
Plus, Im not a kid anymore, so my back starts hurting, and I get sleepy-especially around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Anyway, finally, after three seasons of disappointment-and after I had hunted hard for 4 full days of muzzleloader season and another 4 full days of modern gun, this terrific 8-point showed up at 9:45 AM...I almost couldnt believe my eyes because we were ending our season at 10:00 AM that day and going home. I had already written off another entire season and was sitting there feeling sorry for myself--and preparing for another year of smugness from my hunting buddy--when I heard a very slight rustle in the leaves behind my stand. I slowly got up, turned around, and looked through a fork in the trunk of the big white oak my ladder stand was attached to, but I could not see anything because of a big stand of cedars. After several minutes, a doe stepped out-man, was I disappointed. She hustled on up into the woods and I sat back down to feel sorry for myself some more. Then, a few minutes later, I thought I heard another rustle of leaves from the same area. I stood up again and looked but there was still nothing to see because of the cedars.
Several minutes passed and there were no more sounds. Then my mind started to play tricks on me and I began to doubt that I had heard anything in the first place. Then, from the direction in front of my stand, I definitely heard a deer coming...fast. I spun back around (to face the front again) and got my shotgun up and ready (a Remington 870 with a rifled replacement barrel-shoots a 1 oz. sabot-sweet weapon for deer!). The deer was getting closer and coming fast but I could not see it yet. Then, from behind me again I definitely heard a step in the leaves. So now, after 8 hard days of hunting and seeing very few deer, I knew I had one in front and one behind me at the same exact time (isn't that the way it always is?). I had to make a decision-face front or rear? My heart was hammering and I think I forgot to breathe for a while. I decided to wait for the fast-approaching deer in front of me. I waited. I could hear the deer behind me start to walk away.
Come on deer! Get here already! Finally, I got a good glimpse of the deer in front of me. It was a doe. I quickly spun around and looked through the fork of the tree to try to get a look at the deer behind me--already sure I had missed my opportunity. But I was amazed to see a nice, perfectly shaped rack heading away from me at a trot about 40 - 50 yards out.
He was maybe three steps from being gone. I had maybe two seconds to get a shot, so I threw my shotgun into the fork of the tree, aimed for the shoulder-blade area and pulled the trigger, praying that I didn't screw it up. He went down in tracks about 60 yards out--like a piano got dropped on him. I was so excited I almost fell out the stand trying to get down the ladder. Of course, then the real work began... Crit urlLink 
