As usual, Brigid has a masterful post up. She does it so regularly, it's almost disgusting. We mere mortals can toil away for days on a post, and she zips out something unforgettable almost daily..... (g).
In lieu of actual blogging today... I'll just post my own comment to her post. Yes... Yes... I know....Look up pathetic in the book.... I'll be staring out at you.
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Wow! Chills!
You brought back my own first time deer hunting... in a flashback like a movie.
I was 17, and hunting with a friends family in upstate PA, Near Bloomsburg. First light of first day found me on ground stand with a single shot 30-30. I had spent a bad night at the cabin, coughing into my sleeping bag so I wouldn't wake everyone else. I'll confess... I had a fair sized glass of home made wine that morning to stifle the cough. Thick, sweet, and strong, it chased away the hacking for long enough....
Not long after first light... holding my coat collar clenched between my teeth to stop coughing... I heard a crashing coming up the hill from my right. The woods were thick, and I had picked out shooting lanes in several directions that let me see almost 75 yards in the clear to shoot. The single shot was no handicap, as one shot was all there was ever going to be.
A spike buck jumped one of my lanes.. just enough for me to see the tines clearly. I lined up on the next lane for my shot, and as he leaped into the air I shot at 45 yards and dropped him like a stone. Severed his spine at the base of the neck. He was dead before I could walk the short distance to him.
I looked down at my first deer, then leaned the rifle against a tree as I started coughing openly for the first time that day. I did so till I tasted blood, then got it under control.
An hour later I had that deer hanging at the cabin and cleaned out, and I was laying down inside, in the heat of the wood stove.
Later that day was the long drive out to a doctors, who let me know pneumonia was not something to ignore.
To hell with that. I had my first buck, and he tasted damn good.
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4 comments:
Heh... See I have an advantage... I don't think, I just write stream of consciousness :-)
I'm so glad you reposted your comment at Brigid's here because it was also exciting and worth the sharing. Same offer stands, you know - draw out for a tag for NM and the ranch is yours to roam.
Have a fabulous Christmas!
Nice story, glad you survived the pneumonia.
Wow. Yeah, pneumonia is not something that should be ignored! Congrats on the deer, though...;)
Merry Christmas to you!!!
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