A Point for Every Decade (con't)

I would like to add a few things to my brothers story "A Point for Every Decade". There are a few facts from the hunt a year earlier that tie in.

On the preceding year Dad was directing us into the woods through some tough cover. We always go into the woods at 5AM so it is dark in the woods except for the flashlight you are using. I felt we were circling to the left and it was tough walking. We ended up coming out on the same trail on which we came in. We went a different way and ended up where we were supposed to be posted. It had been 30 years since I hunted the area so it all was new to me. I was hunting the same spot that Dad shot the special buck the next year.

The spot is wood covered but you do have some open lanes through through the trees in which to shoot. It is a slopping area and we were about half way down toward the bottom. I had seen movement toward the bottom about 100 yards away and knew it was a deer but no idea whether it was a buck or doe. It was in clear view and then it disappeared. It's amazing how a deer can be there one second and then be gone the next. It turned out the deer had bedded down. I kept watching the spot while checking around the woods. I shoot a 32 Winchester Special that is a saddle gun that was used in the Old West. After an hour the deer got up and started moving. I could see a nice rack and lined up for a shot. I shot (the $100 shot) and must of missed it cleanly. The deer started running through the woods and I never got another chance to shoot. Was this the same buck my Dad got the next year? It certainly could have been. There are not a lot of large racked bucks in that area of the mountain woods.

Now to the year that Dad did get a big buck. I had directed our way into the woods and had gone in a circle and we ended up back on the trail. We walked the trail a little ways further down and headed back into the woods. My Dad got tired and decided to post where we were rather than trying to go any further to find his spot. After it got light, he wanted to move to his regular spot. I said that was fine because I was mainly there for him. We moved over toward his spot and he stopped in my spot and said he was staying there. I said alright but it was the wrong spot and that his spot was just over the rise. (He told me later in confidence that he was just tired and didn't want to go any further.) That was a great choice he had made. I went over to his spot and never saw a thing. About an hour later, I heard the report from the 30:06 and knew Dad had shot. The 30:06 makes the largest boom you can have in the woods. I waited a short time and headed over to see how he had done. There he was getting the big deer ready to be taken out of the woods.

What a great hunt that day. One you remember for a lifetime.