Stories

The One the Got Away

Well, everyone who deer hunts can tell you stories on the one that got away. I have so many that no doubt, I’ve missed 3-4 deer for every one I’ve killed. Unfortunately, the bigger the deer is, the more likely you are to miss him. Well, the year was 1979 it was the first big deer hunt we had in my lifetime at the farm. I had my friends Mike Nall (Kubla Khan), Jim Gaston, and Jamie Williams with me and we had “camped out” at the farm house the night before. Mr. Lucas, who leases land from us to this day, had brought some deer dogs and gotten about 4 good ole boys to come hunt with us. We let Mr. Lucas tell us where to go and we would wait until the dogs ran the deer by us. Mr. Lucas was good at this and leased land all around ours so this hunt covered over well over 1,200 acres. There were deer being flushed everywhere and we heard a shot and then heard Mr. Lucas calling everyone back toward the farm house. One of the good ole boys had taken an 8 point on the power lines. This was the first time I had ever seen a buck on my land and even though it was dead by someone else, I was thrilled. Well, Mr. Lucas starts talking about the big buck that he had seen crossing the road. What he would do would be let the dogs go and then drive in his truck to the next road and see if any got away and he had spotted this buck. He tells us again where to go and we head out into the brush. Now I’m excited because it seems we have a chance of getting another big buck. You could hear the dog’s way off in the distance, from where I was standing is a little clearing. The dogs seemed to be heading my way but it sounded like they were over a mile from me still. FLASH, there he goes. I raised my rifle but he was long gone. It was a big deer, 8-10 points and had run right by me when I was sure I’d had some time before he showed himself. Well, the dogs and me came out of the woods together, the walk of shame, Mr. Lucas had already called everyone back to the side of the road where I had to tell my story and be looked upon by the good ole boys. To make matters worse, a car hits one of the dogs while we were gathered around talking and the dog is shot right there on the side of the road he was so bad off. Everyone loads up to drive back to the farm house for lunch and some water. It was relatively warm that day and I was disgusted with my self so I tell them I’ll meet them at the house, I’m going to walk back. We are on the Clarko-Stonewall road, about 200 yards from old Hwy 45 and Clarko. I just jump the fence there and start walking in the general direction of the farm house thinking about the one that got away. I run into the powerlines and start down the trail cleared by the powerline company when, FLASH, there he goes again! I can’t believe it now, he crossed about 20 yards in front of me and I barely had time to flinch, much less get a shot off. I head off again thinking about how am I going to tell them what has happened again. I get to the house and everyone is standing around in the yard talking. That’s when I learn the deer had run down the road leading to the farm house, through yard where the good ole boys were lying around eating Vienna Sausage and crackers and on across the field and into the woods. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad, everyone had forgotten I missed him and no one paid me any attention when I tried to tell them I had seen him again.

BACK

[email protected]