We all have hunts that don't turn out just the way we want them....some worse than others. And those can seem to haunt us eternally.
Sometimes fate is just belated, and a late victory, although not as tasty as an instant victory, is still mighty sweet.
I got a call last week from 'Peanut' Campbell at Solana Ranch asking me to describe my buck's rack that we never found. I did, and he said my description of the rack looked a lot like the one he was holding. I asked him where he found it, and he said "Only 50 yards downstream from where your buck crosses the river on his escape". It made sense it was mine, being in the back yard basically of my tree stand, and the fact that we were on the last hunt of the season.
Peanut sent me some pics, and I was pretty sure it was him, but I couldn't tell for sure. There was one pic from overhead that sure looked like the shape of the main beams as I remembered it. Peanut was kind enough to send it to me to have a look in person.
Soon as I opened the box and looked in I didn't even have to take it out, there was no doubt it was him. I immediately had the vision of this buck standing below me broadside in the opening. He was magnificent!!! I've never experience a recovery like this before, a recovery after the fact, but I'm thrilled let me tell ya.
We can only speculate at this point, as it 'seemed' the buck was held up in some really nasty stuff in the river bottom in his death bed, and he somehow eluded 4 of us and a dog. I'm still not sure just how that happened. But after we left, the rains came and they came causing a big flood that evidently drug my buck out of the thicket coming to rest in the edge of the river just a stones throw of his crossing. That's Peanuts take on it.
Sure, I'd love to know the real story, but I wont. I'd love to have had the thrill of the recovery, the photos, the camp celebration, and the fine venison, but I can't get any of that back.........
But I'll settle for the icing just the same.
Topic: The Haunting is over...... (Read 6986 times)
