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One of the things that I enjoy the most about hunting is the solitude of it all... of being alone in the woods with just my thoughts for company. And yet in truth I am not alone. When I shot my last deer I shot at him twice. That morning as I was skinning him out, after the hunt was over, a neighbor came by to see what all the shooting had been about. He laughed when he saw only one hit on the deer... "You missed him on that first shot, huh. That's what I figured," he said. I'm hunting down in South Carolina this year, as I have for the past 6 years, with Arnold Kirk, my hunting buddy and a family friend. Arnold and his wife Nancy own a beautiful log home on 150+ acres down around Lancaster. We've put a lot of work into the land, cleaning up from the damage from hurricane Hugo in 1989. It's a great place to hunt, as I hope some of the pictures on this page will demonstrate. I've broken the pictures up by weekend. 1997 marked the first year that I decided to keep an online hunting journal. I didn't get very far with it, and late that year I met Micki, who would soon become my wife. Being newly married and adjusting to the changes that marriage brings took a lot of my attention, and it wasn't until 2000 that I would return to the idea of having an online journal. You can see the original version of this journal here. |
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Notes: Clicking on any picture will show you a full size image of that picture. Click here for a "cast of characters" for my hunting journals |
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Next week... Ted and I go to Estill, SC for a combination wild boar and deer hunt.
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In late 1997, I was again deerless. I was coming off
my second straight three deer season, and it was beginning to look
like I was going to be skunked for the first time since 1994. While
hunting at Arnold's land, I decided to go ahead and take a doe if I
saw one, just to get some meat in the freezer. I was hunting in a climbing stand down in a hardwood bottom near the pond. As the morning wore on, I finally heard a deer approach from my right. It came walking quickly past my stand, and I, thinking that it was a doe, had only a second or two to raise my rifle and fire. I saw the deer jump, then watched it run off into the woods. This was the first time that a deer that I shot with my 7mm magnum actually did anything other than drop in its tracks. I climbed down and immediately found the blood trail. It was easy to follow, and I soon saw the deer lying dead against a tree some 50 yards from where I shot it. I was somewhat disappointed to see that I had shot this three pointer. I had honestly not seen the antlers, and was sure that it was a doe. I regretted the fact that I shot it, but at the same time it was nice to fill my tag for the year. Arnold had heard the shot, and soon came driving up on the four wheeler to help me load it up. We had some new puppies to take to the vet that morning, so we took the deer down to the shop where I field dressed him, then loaded him up to take to the processor.
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