On the opening day of the 1998 South Carolina rifle season, I was hunting in the evening from a stand overlooking the road down to Arnold's pond.  We had not seen many deer during the bow season.  The acorn crop was extremely heavy, and the deer did not have to move very far to find food.  I decided to hunt this stand in the hopes of catching a deer that was in need of something other than acorns to eat.

As I sat quietly in the stand, I noticed that a deer had appeared in the middle of the road, right before my eyes.  I raised my rifle and saw its rack, and, thinking it was a six pointer, decided to shoot.  I fired, and the deer ran off into the woods.

I got down from the stand and walked to where the deer had been standing.  I actually found the heart of the deer lying in the road, so I knew that my shot had been excellent.  I looked around, but was unable to find a blood trail.   Arnold was hunting on the power lines not too far from where I was, so I decided that it would be in my best interest to go get him and solicit his help in finding the deer.  I ran over to his stand and whistled to get his attention.  He came down, and together we went back to where I had shot the deer.

Arnold is a good tracker, and he made short work of finding my deer.   He pointed me over to where it was laying, and much to my surprise, it was a small eight pointer.  The deer was too small to mount, but I did cut the antlers off and mounted them on a nice looking plaque which now hangs on the wall of my office.