This isn't an exciting story of grand hunts, gourmet food and camp frivolity. It is the musings of simple time afield for us 'stay-at-home' hunters with limited resources.
To begin, this has been a difficult season. It started with good weather the opening day, October 3rd , and then it snarled, spit, rained, snowed and was pure-T miserable every weekend since.
To step back a bit farther, it's been a 3-year dry spell for me with no shots taken or even drawing a bow. No money and no work kept me hunting in my back yard. I'd started to loose some connection with why I was out there. Endless hours on stand watching the local woods fill with hunters and leaves when all the deer sign told of nocturnal movement, left me dejected. I needed things to change.
Maybe some of our Trad Gang Brethren can relate?
I know of a few decent spots but they were several hours travel away from my home area. When there was work, there wasn't time and when there was time, there wasn't money to even fill the tank and go where I wanted to hunt.
This year, I looked forward to the fall. I had a new job and figured I'd have $$ to at least travel in-state to hunt better haunts. The job turned highly stressful and as the season approached, it became apparent that I'd hunt only on weekends.
Traditions die hard. For years I'd hunted a few times in central PA each season with an old friend. 2 of triplets now drive, but they still all hunt together. Our interactions were more about meeting in the field, exchanging well wishes and keeping in touch during the day electronically.
End of last bow season, I learned through this friend that we could hunt an adjoining property. I spent a few hours scouting and found a trail that a buck was using (based on scrapes and rubs) so I mentally marked the area. Having to drive 3 hrs to reach this location, I didn't get a lot of scouting done after spring turkey season...but had an idea where I might "give it a whirl."
I set a stand the afternoon before the opener early October, in a small clearing that the "buck" trail had quartered through. I saw a good buck, but all movement was to the East of my stand. It was 2 weekends later till I got back and I moved to where the deer had seemingly been traveling... But, then that weekend, it snowed! In Mid-October! I mean, C'mon!! The woods were a mess with snow clinging to the leaf canopy--- then it rained and slushy snow was falling constantly... including whole tree tops! The constant whoosh- whump of large bodies of falling snow and crashing limbs kept deer movement to a minimum.
Once I got hit on the head with a half wheel-barrow of snow and almost got removed from my stand. I decided to give it up and I did some stalking. Nothing was moving. Saturday it got worse and rained more.
Then it rained for 3 more weekends in a row... I don't hunt bow in the rain. Oh, I've seen lots of deer in the rain, but I fear losing a blood trail, especially early season with the understory thick with leaves. I refuse to chance it.
Time was running out. The next to last Saturday I got in a good hunt with a friend on his place in NE PA. It was 19 degrees and there was a lot of chasing being done. I saw a passel of bucks in one day, a few does...but nothing would come close to the permanent hang-on stand location I was hunting. It was intoxicating but frustrating, too
Last week was the end of the season. I had a few days coming so I took off work
Thursday and Friday and headed back to Central PA. I got there mid day on Thursday and got out and set a stand at the other end of the clearing, closer to the base of the ridge.
With the sour weather, I never got my annual "fix" of the smell, sights and sounds of the early fall woods that renews my very inner being. I was blessed to find that last Thursday was a perfect "fall" day...cool and crisp. The air full of the dank smell of the forest, wafting to my nose and I breathed deeply. I smiled. My inner being was drinking in what I'd missed and so longed for...
Some strange malaise hit me Thursday overnight and I was one sick dog. Nausea and dizziness don't go with tree stand hunting at my age, so it was later Friday AM when I finally felt stable enough to push myself to go hunting.
Friday was again a beautiful fall day. I again drank deeply of the soul-healing scents and crisp air. I saw does both days...but too far away. There was a few small spike's chasing fawn does around. At noon, a nice buck appeared. He was a tall-tined 6pt or 8pt... and marched right past the other end of the clearing where I had my original stand opening weekend. "Archery is truly a game of inches..."
The malaise returned early Friday afternoon and I felt horrid, but still enjoyed the time in the stand between waves of nausea. More does appeared, but it seemed the deer had altered their patterns to run a small hogback that sloped down to the right of my stand. Deer movement seemed confined to the small ridge under the canopy of hemlocks. It was too thick to shoot into that area.
As ill as I felt physically I was still elated. I had missed so much of what I enjoy of bow hunting: the opportunity to snuggle deep inside your jacket, awaiting the dawn's warming rays as the pre-dawn chill sinks into your bones. The smells and watching the woods come alive as the only sounds are the night creatures scurrying back into cover as daylight approaches.
Thursday afternoon and Friday, instead of the dreary, cold damp normal weather of mid-November, I was gifted with all that I'd missed. Beautiful fall days, crisp air and I breathed deeply of the sights and sounds and smells to cleanse my inner being of all the tension and stress of recent months. Deer sightings kept the blood moving quickly and I loved the "rush" of seeing those wonderful animals. I was renewed.
I finally found that peace that draws me back to the early get ups and bleary eyed climbs into trees. The world was right again. I thought I'd miss out on that entirely this year and the Good Lord gave it to me at the end in grand style.
Friday night, I'd have pulled the stand because I felt that badly. I figured I'd come back Saturday to pull it if I didn't feel well enough to hunt.
As I stood in the dark at the truck putting away my gear, I reflected: I'd seen a great buck. I had does around me but no shots. I'd gotten to feel my soul cleansed with the wonders of the woods that I'd missed up to that point. I was ok if whatever was plaguing me physically prevented my hunting the last day.
I drove back to my 83 year old "2nd Ma's" house, feeling queasy but at peace and fulfilled.
Once there the smells of "Ma's" home cooking hit me. I figured if I was going to be too sick to hunt, I might as well have some good reason and I settled into a hot meal. "Ma's" cooking was always good—and good for me.
The hot meal stayed where it belonged. I actually slept well that night. I got up at 4am and felt a bit dizzy, but some say that is normal for me anyway. I got a light breakfast, a quick shower and headed out.
I settled into my stand in the cool darkness. While Thursday and Friday were crisp and cool, Saturday was overcast and damp: more typical mid-November day in Pennsylvania. I was at peace and planned to pull the stand after 12:00 since I'd seen the buck the day before at Noon. Then drive to get some apples for "Ma" at an orchard nearby and come back and do some ground hunting.
Around 9am, I noticed legs coming over the spine of the hemlock covered ridge. I stood up and got ready, but I fully expected the deer to do as others had and turn to go up the spine of that small hogback ridge, stay inside the hemlocks and out of shot range.
Alas, not so! She came straight through... "Whoa...David, get your mind right! You might get a shot if she holds this course!" The self talk helped...
Good stuff Doc, waiting for the thrilling conclusion!!!
I readied the Morrison...feeling the pressure build on the string and the riser settle into my open hand... everything felt right...she proceeded between trees and shooting lanes... one, two, three came and went...I had one left. I drew and she paused. Dang...don't usually hold this long....arms started to burn and I just said a small prayer and increased back tension. She moved into the slot and I let the fingers slip the string... the GT5575 with a KME-ground single bevel Tusker loaded up to 290 gr. zinged on its way. It hit perfect! Well, a bit low, but I always held that a low shot behind the shoulder was a dead heart shot...she took several noisy bounds and I lost her movement. Her departure was shielded by trees but I never heard her fall...odd. Seemed like a great hit. I saw the arrow go in where I wanted.
Using the binocs, I could see the blood was good at the shot site and the shaft was a pass-through and covered in bright blood. I looked up the hill behind me and see a doe walking head down low, one slow step-by- step at a time. UH-OH! I know that look! Liver shot! How'd I hit the liver?
She only went 50-60 yards and bedded down. Took a while, but she keeled over and showed me her belly. I gave thanks. I called my preacher buddy and he shared my joy at breaking a 3-year dry spell. We teased that I could still shoot a buck in PA so I waited a bit.
I'd caught one lung perfect and just missed the other one catching a lobe of the liver, so she didn't travel far ...but it wasn't that 30 second bleed-out we like. Had I pushed her, I don't know. I waited the appropriate time and over the years, you learn to just sit and wait: Give Nature the time to do what is natural.
I sat there and planned the rest of my day. I reflected on how perfect things had ended for my season.
I'd gotten the full Monty "fix" of smells and the rejuvenating healing only the fall woods can provide a bow hunter. My soul was quieted. I was finally at peace within myself and when that happened, along came a deer. A good shot made and she was down and in sight. Divine intervention? I prefer to think that truly possible. When I stopped being the pursuer and enjoyed being there, it came together. Thank you, Lord.
As I quietly sat and gave thanks and did mental inventory of the fullness and gratitude I felt for the whole experience, I looked up to see legs standing on the other side of a pine tree directly in front of me. I leaned out and with the binoculars could see bone... ugly, palmated many points, but legal in PA bone!
I quietly stood once more. My mind raced. Is this possible? Would I get another shot? At a buck? For real? It took tremendous will-power to quiet my racing mind ---forget the heart...it was going to do what it wanted anyway! Steady ole boy...
This buck started up the small ridge to my right... but outside the hemlocks. He'd pass offering a 22 yard shot...and then he turned. He turned to parallel the path the doe took less than 2 hrs before...but wait. Mr Murphy decided to show up. That goofy-horned buck then turned again and came straight down the hill directly toward me! I'm screamin in my head, "NO, Turn broadside!" He didn't hear me or he just was too ornery to listen.
He finally turned parallel to me...at 10 FEET! Of course, at that proximity, I SWEAR animals can feel your eyes! He snapped his head up and there I was... I closed my eyes to slits so's not to make eye contact...he stood there what seemed like forever but was likely 5 seconds...then gave a half snort and turned to run back the way he came.
All those Primos videos paid off. I mouth bleated and he stopped and turned quartering away. I had a good size hole between 2 pine limbs framing his vitals. I bent my knees slightly and saw the perfect shot... I told myself..."Done this hundreds of times on 3d targets...just burn a hole"
Without thinking, the arrow was on its way and there it was as he kicked his back legs up, just 4" sticking out behind the shoulder. Off he ran and I never heard him fall. Hmm...maybe it's my ears as I age?
I couldn't believe it! 2 deer in 2 hrs in ONE day! The closing day of the season! Amazing! I just sat down grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat, and once again, giving thanks for a perfect closing and an unbelievable bit of fortune that just doesn't seem to happen often in my life. I felt truly blessed.
After that, it was the "accountability" that goes with all good things. I got the stand down, packed it, walked to where I shot at the buck and found on his exit trail 5" of shaft and broad head, but not the shaft... I knew it was sticking in him and I knew from several other deer doing the same thing, I'd have a bit of a tracking job till the arrow came out and opened the blood trail. Seems on 1/4ing away shots, the deer draw back that off-side elbow to run and snap off the shaft as it's exiting...quick li'l buggars, them deer!
I left that trail and went and got the doe down on the flat, then took the stand out and changed into old clothes for the pack out and took my cart up to get the doe. Till I had her dressed, my friends had finished their lunch and were ready to help track. It was a short track job. Sparse pin-head drops of blood for 30-40 yards till the arrow came out and then the spigot opened up. The buck traveled less than 75-80 yards total.
We carted him out and I insisted my buds go off to hunt the last afternoon. I paid in spades getting that 2nd one dressed and the two of them in the truck. I was then off to my friends garage to hang and skin them both.
Till the ordeal of dealing with both deer was completed, I hurt in places I forgot I had. Two in one day is a lot of work...I smiled, but I am paying for that 'joy" for sure! I vowed to do a Mickey (Ferret) from OH and carry only ONE arrow in the future and never, ever shoot 2 deer in the same day again.
The buck was no wall hanger. By many standards he was kinda ugly. He has two palmated antlers with 4 points on one side and 3 on the other. He looks more like a freak antelope than a whitetail. The doe was "just a doe" to some.
I'm grateful to have harvested 2 of God's great creatures with good shots. I reslish the meat and will process it myself lovingly. I managed to capitalize on 2 opportunities when they finally presented themselves to me. Best of all, I quit "hunting" and relaxed and enjoyed "just being there..." and that was when it all came together. I'm thinking there is an important lesson in there for us all...
We didn't get pictures as the guys wanted to get back out for the afternoon and both deer were pretty stiff, so it was ok we didn't get any unglamorous pics.
Thanks for traveling along on a not-so-glamorous tale with a regular ole "Joe" who was blessed in so many ways as this tale unfolded.
I was shooting a Morrison recurve, 50# @ 28 and shooting 29.5" GT5575 with 290gr up front pushing Tusker 150's custom single bevel ground by KME.
Terrific, Doc. What a wonderful return to the "game"!
Congats brother
Hey Dave,
Great job and yes two deer in one day is quite a bit of work but well worth the effort. In the business world they would call that "Quality Time Management"! :thumbsup:
Tim
Congratulations Doc! You did good. :clapper: Thanks for taking the time to share your hunt with us.
Wow! Two in two hours...now theres a great end to a season.
Congratulations!
Outstanding hunt tale told!!
I felt like I was in the tree next to you filming it!
Congrats Sir!
Thanks, folks. This whole weekend has been an experience of intense emotions that will take a bit of time to fully comprehend and unravel.
Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad to see that a simple hunt can be shared and enjoyed by my bow bretheran.
Sweet! :bigsmyl:
I wish I could see a pic of the antlers, though. They sound unusual.
Killdeer....um, not exactly "brethren". :p
congrats doc :thumbsup:
Wow!!!
Congrats...and thanks. :thumbsup:
My friend Don, "batman" sent me a PM about this post this evening - am I ever glad he did. Congratulations of the grandest scale to my old and dear friend "Doc" Nock. If anyone deserves it after the bad breaks you've had the last three or four years, it is you, Dave. I am so happy for you. (and the story was great, so was the shooting!) :thumbsup: :thumbsup: (One for each of them - ;) )
:archer:
Congrats Doc! Great story!
Hey Dave! i'm glad it all came together for you. Thanks for sharing the hunt.
Nicely done, both on the deer and the story! Omedeto! :thumbsup:
Congratulations Dave and great story telling....I'm glad you had this opportunity....Don and Skyler
Congrats :clapper: very nice story teller
Way to go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, All! I'm so pleased you enjoyed the tale and in sharing such an unusual hunt with me.
Killy, Dear, I'll try to get pics of the horns posted up by the weekend. They're in the cooler with just the head and I have to see if I can do anything tasteful with it or have to wait till I saw off the skull cap. They are odd-looking...but then I can relate! :)
I have two cell phone pics of the area from my stand. If I can, I'll post them.
Tomorrow its butcher time! Friend has a walk in cooler at 36 degrees, so they're aging nicely and will get cut up and frizzed tomorrow after work. Thursday the grinder meat goes to the shop and I vacuum up my year's supply of burger.
If you figure the time line, you'll note that the buck didn't leave much initial blood with the shaft in the double entry-exit hole...so I backed outa there and took care of the doe.
He's started to do his statue immitation by the time we got him out of the woods 2hrs after the shot.
I'd never tried to dress out a deer in that state of rigor. My friends left to resume their afternoon hunt. There I was trying to pry his stiffened hind legs to start the dressing job. The leg would snap back and cold cock me upside the head...If anyone saw my antics with the carcass, they'd have called the Rubber Room Squad! By the time I got him opened up, I looked more like I was in a wrasslin match on the ground with a dead deer... or some bizarre knife fight gone "Friday the 13th" theme! :knothead:
Never realized I'd not gutted an animal that had started to stiffen so nicely. It adds a new dimensions to the experience.
Thanks for the many kind posts. I'm still amazed at the collateral damage those single bevel heads did going in and coming out.
I wish I had pictures after we got them out as well, but stiff critters don't pose well and it might best be left to memory. I'll see if I can share some pictorals in a few days.
Thanks again for the kind words.
Dave,
That was a great story, I know your dedication to shooting and wouldn't have expected the results to be any different. Congrats!!!!
The only thing you left out was ........ What time is dinner??? I will bring a bottle of wine and we can toast your success.
Mike
Dave : I can't tell ya how happy I am for you my friend , a sinsear congrats to you . That is a great story and well learned lesson. We should all relax more and just enjoy what we are given . Way to go . Drew
Top notch story telling Doc! The self talk and praise to the Creator were especially good. The details and background perfect. So glad I clicked on this one.
I remember killing two in one day my first year in MD. It was on a Friday and both were nearly a mile drag (and the reason I bought a cart the next year!)I had to run out to buy a freezer and butcher both on Saturday because Sunday AM I had a flight to Denver for a conference. That was a lot of work.Our dog sitter was none to happy either as the Bouvier got into the scraps and made an absolute mess in the house for us to clean when we returned from Denver!
Congrats on your deer. Sounds like you paid your dues for that pair. Funny how those of us who worship in the woods seem to get those soul lifting experiences when we most need it.
Wow,MB,
as I live and breathe. I thought you were abducted by aliens or something. :) You can come for dinner anytime, bud. Be great to catch up.
Drew, I failed to mention that it was your string that sent the shaft on it's way! I'd re-served the original with what I had in .025 and it was way too tight, so I went to the back up string till I get to reserve with .022 and see if it helps.
Steve, many years ago my first trad kill was a short-nose doe of the year. She fed contentedly to me for 20 min. I think she gained 5# in the process. She took 3 steps after the shot (severed the large artery below the spine and took out both lungs) and she fell dead in like 10 seconds.
It got very warm and I panicked. I'd hung her that night with hide off and had it all cut up and butchered and frozen by 10am next day.
Y'know, that tender li'l doe that wasn't run or stressed was the worst, toughest, oneriest chewing deer meat ever. I've since read that if you don't let them age to get the rigormortis outa the meat (around 36 hrs), it'll be tough all the way through your alimentary canal!
I believe it. Mine all get aged now even if I have to bone out 1/4's and keep it in a cooler w/ ice!
I lucked out with the vacant out-of-service old chest freezer brought into play.
And yes, folks, I DID learn, or re-learn, to become one with the woods and let the killing take care of itself. All those years of not even seeing a deer...sure wears on a body and soul. I succumbed to feeling pressure of my own making. And I wanted the meat! All selfish motives...
It's all about perspective when it comes down to it. Thanks for reinforcing I'm not alone in those lessons.
I'm tickled to death that folks enjoyed the story tellin, too! :) You folks are the best!
Sounds like an amazing hunt. Any pics?
Nice, it's an inspiration to hear about your gumption. I may have given up when feeling as sick as you did. I have yet to get my first deer. I think I will try again tomorrow. Thanks...
Dave,
Congratulations my friend. :thumbsup: If anyone deserves a day like that... well you know what I mean. BUT!!!!! How could you forget the CAMERA!!!???? :banghead: :rolleyes:
Ron
Doc, That was a great story. I had "exactly" the same thing happen to me on the last day...but with no deer. I'm a minister and right when the season opened I had to bury my father-in-law. My mother-in-law needed to go to an independent living facility so I had two properties to dispose of, an auction and all of the legal stuff with insurances etc... My hunting time was limited and when I would go the "feeling" wasn't there. Finally, after 6 weeks I went out and found what I was looking for. The smells, the feel of the woods and the peace that this great sport gives each of us. I've only had 4 seasons in the past 46 that I didn't kill a deer with my bow but it was OK this year since I found hunting again. Congrats on a great ending but especially for finding the "hunt" again before it was all over!
Ron,
Y'know...if I had the camera, I'd never had a reason to use it! That's how it is. You should know that! :)
Frank,
That is a tall order you had to fill emotionally this season. No wonder it didn't click for you till the end.
My pickle is always the double edged sword. I love the meat and after a couple dry years, it was easy to start feeling the failure might be my fault and that drives some nutty thoughts.
When a dear friend invited me 3 years ago toward season's end to come hunt his small property, I still got zero shots, but had visual sightings of deer..and BUCKS, all day long.
That was when it connected. I was elated and filled with all sorts of joy and energy just SEEING deer! When that doesn't happen, time after time after time---year after year...I feel like an idiot for getting up outa bed at dead-dark-30. Archery is about "a game of inches" and near shots and "if only". Just watchin deer re-fills my happy place!
This year, I was seeing and not finding the joy and it had to do, I think, with the stuff going on in my world and the fact there was none of the sights, senses, smells (due mostly to weather)that always fills my soul.
Thank you, Lord for those things those last 2 days before I began to embrace those gifts as joy enough. Amen.
Mom used to call what some would say was a "coincidence" a "God-incidence"-- that after I stopped pushing to "make meat" and enjoyed being there--things happened .
Great hunt and read, thanks, and congrats!
Way to go Doc!!! Congrats.
(http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm292/DavidLandis/11-15standsite2.jpg)
This is a view of the hogback I wrote about covered with hemlocks, running up hill from lower left to upper right of screen.
The buck came in behind the pine in the lower left, angled up the slope, then turned down to my stand and ran back to the pine tree when he didn't like what he saw at 10'. I shot him 1/4ing away at the ends of the pine limbs.
Doc,
What a way to end a dry spell. Congratulations!
It must be the year for two-fer days.....I had one of those on Nov. 7th.....and feel for you regarding the "stiff-legged" field dressing chore. Not fun....but I'm sure you relished every minute of it.
Great story...even greater outcome.....thanks for sharing with us.
"DUDE!"
Not sure how I missed this one.....but I'm happy for you bud...CONGRATS!!!!
Keep the faith :thumbsup:
Doc, Congrats on the two deer and getting your Spirit "recharged" so to speak...I have had that same feeling trying to get the smell of Autumn into my soul...Last week I went out on Friday the 13th sicker then a dog chewing his own vomit and during a very nasty overcast day...I went to cross a newly redug drainage ditch and went in over my knee boots up to my pant pockets...As I climbed my stand I pulled both boots off and poured out about a gallon of water and stayed out for 5 hrs.soaked...It just made me that much more sick! After those long flights coming home from half way around the world I wanted to get in touch with that same feeling you were looking for but I just made it worse on myself...I'm very happy for you Doc. and just to let you know my "Quiver" is Full now...I'll get my time in the great outdoors but I've been Blessed in another way this year! Very good story and Thanks for sharing it with us all.God Bless You Brother and enjoy those deer this year.Keefer's <")))><
Here's one shot of the odd antlers. I didn't get pics on the ground, so cleaned up the skull cap antlers and made a "still life" of my gear.
(http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm292/DavidLandis/09buck2.jpg)
Here's another view of the same...
(http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm292/DavidLandis/09buck4.jpg)
The quiver was designed by a buddy of mine. I like it. Easy in /out of the arrow w/ minimum movement. Broken arrow and the single Bevel Tusker done up by KME. And of course, the faithful Morrison.
Odd antlers, eh? 4 on left side, 3 on right. Wierd.
Congrats :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Forgot to mention: When I was cleaning up the antlers some to take the pics, they seemed "dirty."
when I examined them, it appeared the "dark" stuff was left might be "velvet".
There were areas of really dark, kinda "hairy" junk in streaks...and I think it might be his horns are so convoluted that he couldn't rub off all the velvet...
Is that possible?
Nice antlers, Dave - almost all of mine over the years have been odd ones in one way or another, so it really looks fine to me - LOL.
Congratulations, Doc Nock!
Great story! Congrats Dave!
Nice story. I enjoyed it. And congrats to you.
Way to go Doc!
Congrats to you, I know all about long dryspells,
a fat young buck last year on opening day broke a long one for me too! I have had one shot at a plump doe this season but mmmmmissed!
I'll still be out there as our season goes till late January. Enjoy your venison amd memories!
Harry.
Hey Bud ! Congrats, you know your gonna have to give the play by play several more times at the BBTC this spring ..Good to see you up and around you old deer killer you !
Dave, I am so happy for you!
I know I haven't exactly been very "present" lately (give me a break, I'm gallivanting around New Zealand with the boy!), but I've thought of you and the rest of the tradgangers often.
Good luck eating all of that deer, I hope you'll have some room in the freezer/motivation to show me around the woods when I get back stateside next fall. Anyway, thanks for sharing the link and the story, I was so glad to hear it.
Cheers!
Dave, what a great story with an even better ending, I'm sure glad that it worked out so well for you :thumbsup:
Way to go Doc, you ole fossil. Great story and a great ending to a few years of strife and turmoil.
It's all good from here on out. You have restored my faith in many ways. Good job my friend.!!!!!
Congrats!!great story! That buck has some "character", don't call the poor guy ugly lol :bigsmyl:
SK38,
Thanks, Bud. Good to hear you ventilated a vein too. You might have to tell story for me at BBTC cause us old folks fergit stuff.
Sarah,
Hey. If I'm still hobblin around, you're welcome to tag along...if you carry my pack!! :)When you comin home?
Jim--thanks. NOw that the super soreness from the event subsided, the grin is back! :)
2 Puppies,
Fossil? Ok, got me. :)Glad it perked you up. Time to get your ole bones back in the game, eh?
Tim,
Well, ugly is as ugly does. Figured he and I shared some "character" so he might not mind going home with me. :)
congrats bud, ya need to send that article into trad bowhunter for publishin!!!!!!!!! great writing
Every now and then I thought of you and wondered how you were doing. Wonderful story! Congratulations on the 2 deer. Also glad to hear you landed a job. I am happy and content far away.
Dave well written story as usual... congrats on 2 in a day... I'll be up in PA early December, we'll hook up for sure... and that is a fine looking trophy... hope he had a chance to pass those genes on... :D ya just gotta love the freaks... :thumbsup:
I'm glad to hear you had a great day Dave, you deserved it and as always a great story worth hearing.
Rod
Great job.
I love two deer days.
Well, I had some of that venison yesterday with Doc and it was great. He was kind enough to share some of it with me the morning after climbing all over side of 1100 foot slope the day before.
Thanks again for a fun weekend and great hospitality.
Hey Doc, congratulations on a great hunt, and reconnecting with your soul in the woods. Sometimes I forget how much I need to get out into country without people or signs of them present, to slow down and drink it in the way you described. You did an excellent job of portryaing what I am sure many of us feel. You are a gifted storyteller, perhaps you should try writing ( or may be you have).
Very nice bro!!!
:thumbsup: :archer: :archer2: