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Although I hunted pretty hard throughout
1992, both on Arnold's land and in the Uwharrie National
Forest, I was unable to take a deer in that year. So,
when 1993 came, I was getting desperate to fill my tag
once again. On this particular afternoon, Arnold and I
were hunting alone on his land. By that time, both Frank
Mack and Gerald Kirk had stopped hunting with us, so
Arnold and I spent quite a few enjoyable days down there
hunting together by ourselves.
Arnold had decided to hunt in around his new pond, while I
was hunting in what we call "the middle field." In
those days, we had three fields on Arnold's land.
The first was actually cut by accident, when the bulldozer
driver misinterpreted our directions. The middle
field is separated from the first by a small patch of
trees, and from a ladder stand in these woods you can
actually watch both fields, although the stand points more
toward the middle field. The third field is a very
small one, set about 40 yards past the middle field.
As night was starting to fall and I was
watching the middle field, I heard a noise behind me in
the first field. I looked over my shoulder and saw a
good sized spike buck feeding at the edge of the field,
not 10 yards from where my stand was. I raised
my 7mm mag and centered the crosshairs on his shoulder.
I fired, and somehow managed to miss this easy 10 yard
"chip shot." Amazingly, the deer simply kept
feeding, as the echo of the shot rolled through the hills.
I jacked another round in the chamber and tried again,
this time hitting the deer squarely in the heart and
dropping him in his tracks.
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