 Fourth Season John,
The deer story was a good one. Unfortunately the farm I had reserved earlier was full of cows. This completely annoyed me and forced me to my 6th choice for property. But as you can see all was not lost. I have to share the rest of the story however as it is typical and has a few classic lessons. On opening day of deer season I saw a nice deer mid morning and promptly missed the shot cleanly. Did not see anything the rest of the day. The following day saw a shadow of a small deer. Frustrated and impatient as I am I went pheasant hunting and had a great time. Unfortunately this left Saturday morning as my last chance to hunt. I had promised my wife I would be home Sunday morning to help around the house and that I would be on the way out of the woods by 9am for the 800 mile trip home. At about 8am I got a poor walking shot at a decent deer and clobbered a branch that went unnoticed in the foreground of the scope. In my frustration I had forgotten to rack in (pump gun) the next shot and the deer presented an easier shot several minutes latter at which time the shell did not feed correctly and in general made enough noise in the woods to wake the dead.
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Needless to say the deer did not wait for the outcome of my gunsmithing. I was ready to launch the gun and promised that the next possum, woodchuck or something would die before I got out of the tree. Stubbornness kicked in and I refused to leave the tree until 9am. At exactly 8:58am as I turned to exit the tree I saw a brown dot streaking across the wheat field near the stand. The dot grew antlers as it came at me about mach 3. As luck would have it It stopped and turned broadside at about 50yards before leaving the field. I glanced at my watch--9am straight up. I finally dragged the beast out by 1pm as the small amount of snow had left all passages very muddy. I arrived home exhausted but with a story for the ages. Hope to generate another this fall.
