I killed my first deer in Texas when I was just 13, and I was hunting alone. Turns out my doe was the largest doe ever taken on Ft. Hood, up to that point. Being brand new to hunting, I had been told by my father that if I shot a deer, to approach it very carefully as it could just be playing dead and it just might jump up and beat me to death with it's hooves, when it smelled me. As I approached the downed deer, I pulled off my full face knit hat, put a big rock in it, and then threw it towards the deer, to see if it would react to my scent. Well, my hat landed at the wrong end of the deer, so now I was in the same predicament. When I finally got to the deer it was definitely dead. I did not know how to field dress a deer, but again my dad told me that the first thing I had to do was to cut it's throat and let it bleed. Well, I pulled out my knife, which I had sharpened all by myself, and began sawing on this deer's throat, but I was making no progress. I finally gave up on the idea of cutting it's throat and began dragging my deer up the incline, to where the military vehicle was to pick me up. I don't remember how long it took me to get it up the steep, 100+ yard long hill, but being a kid it felt like it took me at least a couple of hours. Just as I got to the pick up point the truck arrived and the solider driving the vehicle jumped out and field dressed my deer. I have since learned the correct way to sharpen a knife.
I did not go deer hunting again for several years, like about 10 years, due to my father being transferred all around the country by the Army, my joining the Army, and a lack of any place to hunt. Once I got to hunt again, I was again on a military base. I had a new deer rifle which was spot on at 100 yards and it was topped with a bullet drop compensator scope. The place where I was ordered to hunt had a wide open field with shots out to 300+ yards. I was sitting in a tree stand, which consisted of a pallet nailed into the fork of several branches. Because of the possible long distance shot that I could have, I had placed my 3x9x40 power scope on 9 power and began to wait for a deer to show up. It started raining, the wind began to pick up and the temperature began to drop. I snuggled up as best I could to keep warm, given my placement in the tree. It must have worked, because I was awaken by the sound of deer crashing through some old dead cedar branches piled up behind the base of the tree that I was in. I grabbed my gun and put the scope on them. I had forgotten to take the see-thru scope covers off, and they were covered with rain spots. When I finally realized why I could not see them, I took off the scope covers, placed the cross-hairs on the biggest of the two deer and pulled the trigger.....NOTHING!! It was then that I realized that I had not taken the gun off of safe. I moved the safety to fire, took aim again on this big ole doe, pulled the trigger, and down she went. Since deer have to be field dressed more than 100 yards for the stand, I got down out of the tree stand, placed my rifle on the ground, picked the deer's hind legs to drag her the required distance, and then gave a big hard pull, knowing that I was pulling against the grain of the hair and that it could be a little more difficult. The deer moved so quickly that I found myself sitting on my back side. I got up, picked up the back feet again, tested the weight, picked up the front feet and tested the weight, and then I picked up all four feet, placed them all in my right hand, and carried her off like a suitcase. You see, I had forgotten to dial down the power on the scope, and with the deer only about 10 feet from the base of the tree that I was in, she had looked gigantic through the scope. When I checked her in at the check station, I think she only field dressed out to 55 pounds. |