December 13th, 2003.

    It had been a long season, and I had been hunting it pretty hard. I spent countless days in my stand watching lots of deer and passing on several small bucks. This morning, I woke up well before first light as always. As I was getting washed up and dressed, I thought to myself, what the heck, I may as well take it easy today and give the squirrels a shot.
    Being in the middle of December and the last few weeks of deer season, I figured I'd be stupid to hit the woods with only a 22 rifle, so I carried my 308 along just in case.
    Once I got out to my friends land, I walked in to my spot and took a seat on the ground in a little cluster of trees.  Just as I started to get a little sleepy eyed, I heard something rustling in the leaves near by and getting closer. In hopes of seeing a whitetail, I perked up and became well aware of my surroundings. The rustling sound went away for a few minutes, then came back even more. As I focused in on the noise, I could see the flutter of a fat gray bushy tail in a tree about 50-60 yards away. Ah, the culprit has shown it self. I waited till he got within 30 yards or so, the lined up the cross hairs center mass on his head.
    Once I pulled of the shot and recovered my prey, I returned back to my post and sat for a little longer in hopes of his buddies coming in to play. As I sat there, I began to hear a distant sound that was very familiar. It was very odd to me to hear the Gobble of a Tom that late in the year. A few minutes later, I could see a blue pickup truck driving through the field below the hill I was on. Hmm, maybe that's what spooked that Tom.
    So after sitting for another 30 minutes or so and not hearing any of fuzzy's little buddies, I decided to get up and do a little scouting in hopes of finding some fresh signs or maybe even some more bushytails. I walked around the farm path and came across on more tree rat that was barking at me to warn off his buddies. Hmm, number two in the bag.
    As I passed the big field, I noticed a big pile of dirt pushed back against the wood line. I walked over and up to the top of the pile to see a pretty good view of the woods on the other side. I could even see the fields on the other side of the strip of woods. I began scanning the ground and the trees looking for another glint of hair or a flicker of a tail. Nothing! Dangit, anytime you go deer hunting, all you see and hear are squirrels playing around everywhere. They will drive you mad even. So where the heck are they?
    Then I began to hear a single hound baying off in the distance. As I continued scanning the woods and listening for another squirrel to rustle the leaves, the hound kept getting closer. All of a sudden, I could see a deer on the other side of the wood line running down the farm path in my direction. Just as it broke through the wood line and into my clear view, I whistled. The deer stopped in it's tracks broadside and looking away from me at about 150 yards. I could see it was a decent buck and I knew I should not focus on the rack.  I didn't give him much time to think about running off as I settled the cross hairs just behind his shoulder. When I squeezed the round off, I could see dirt explode on the other side of him. He turned and ran toward me not knowing what had just happened. It was all I could do to get another round chambered in the rifle as I watched to see where he went. Then I realized the he was on his death run as he piled up after a 30 yard sprint into the field.  
    As I walked over to claim my buck, I thought to myself what the heck is wrong with his rack. Man that's got to be some kind of wild non-typical rack or something. The closer I got, I could see what was wrong with the rack. It was just friggin huge. I had never seen anything like that on the other end of my rifle and it just looked very odd. I held his head up and looked upon it with great pride, and then I looked up to heaven and thanked God for the gift he had just given me.
    I remember wishing my father would have gone with me, I felt like a kid at Christmas. I wanted to share those moments with someone, but it was only me, Bucky and God.
    If you have a chance to spend those moments with someone you love, do it while you can. Don't wait until tomorrow. I really miss my father and I wish he were still here to share those moments with.

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