Pete and I hunted together again today.  Our plan was to try to grab the two stands that Jimmy and Matt have been hunting, but they were already in the woods by the time we got to the lease this morning.  Indeed, a lot of the good stands were already taken.  Pete decided that he would go to stand 10 , since that was available.  I chose #15 at the back of the lease, having enjoyed hunting in that stand several times last year.

I dozed off a few times as I sat in the stand waiting for something to happen.  The morning was quiet, and for most of the early hours the only thing of interest that I saw was a pileated woodpecker.  At about 9:00am I was thinking about stretching out for a longer nap when I heard something in the woods behind me.  I twisted around in my chair, but saw nothing.

Turning back around, I saw that a nice doe had emerged from the woods and was already working on the corn pile out in front of my stand.   As I inspected her through my binoculars, I decided that she was a good sized deer and was a shooter.  I was reaching for my rifle when another deer, this one a yearling, came out and stood beside my doe. 

The yearling got in position to eat some of the corn, and as she did she made it impossible for me to get a safe shot at the bigger doe.  No matter which angle I tried, my bullet would pass through the big doe and strike the yearling as well.  I watched them eat for quite some time, always looking for a shot but never getting a chance.  Once in awhile I would put the crosshairs on the neck of the big doe, but I'm just not quite comfortable with the neck shot... and I'm not willing to risk a head shot. 

As they kept feeding, the problem was compounded as another yearling walked out and got on the other side of the big doe, this giving me the rare opportunity to take three deer with one shot.  I couldn't help but laugh at the situation.  A great doe in front of me... a chip shot, really, but no safe path for the bullet to travel.  I cranked the magnification down on my scope so I could watch for a quick shot opportunity to emerge.

Finally, finally, the second yearling moved out of the way.  The big doe and the first yearling were still side by side, but as I watched them the doe took a slight step forward.  If I was careful, I saw that I could just slide a bullet into the heart of the doe and have it emerge just in front of the yearling.  Hesitating not at all, I slipped off the safety, reconfirmed the target, and fired. 

The doe leapt into the air and the yearlings scattered.  The big doe went to the left, tail tucked and running with a definite heart shot posture.  I gathered my gear and climbed down from the stand.  I decided to walk back to where I had parked my truck so that the deer would have a few minutes to expire if she was still alive.  I got the truck and drove up to the corn pile.  There was a huge splash of blood and heart tissue on the ground, and a blood trail like a highway leading into the woods to the left.

I followed the trail, but saw immediately that I had a problem.  The road at my deer stand is bordered on two sides by gullies.  Big ones.  Deep ones.  The blood trail was headed downhill, straight into the deepest of these gullies.  I walked around the border of the gulley, but could find no better way down than the one the deer took.  Holding on to briar bushes and young pine trees, I slowly climbed down to the bottom of the ditch.  I found the deer laying under a stand of kudzu 30 feet below the surface of the road.

Wondering how in the world I was going to get the deer out of the hole, I carefully climbed back up the cliff.  I carry a 20 foot tow strap in my Jeep, but that wasn't going to be long enough.  I thought that maybe I could hook it to two ratchet straps that I also carry, so I gathered these items and started back down into the hole.  Checking myself, I decided that it would be too easy to slip and break a leg, so I decided I had better go get Pete before I went down the hill again.

I raced back to his stand, then listened to his tale of seeing ten deer that morning from the stand he was hunting.  From his stand we grabbed a long, thick rope that is there to let hunters pull their gear up into the tree with them.  Back at the gulley, we started down the hill together.  Pete managed to get down to the deer, and once there he tied the rope to the forelegs of the animal in a tight knot.  I climbed back up the hill with the rope, then hooked it to my tow strap via a loop in the end of the rope.

Once that was accomplished, it was actually quite easy to pull the deer out of the hole with the Jeep.  I did decide, however, that I would never hunt that stand alone again.  That hole is just too dangerous of a place for a hunter to have to go by himself to retrieve a deer, and the way the corn pile is positioned the deer is almost certain to go into it.

After taking pictures of the deer, we headed into Van Wyke, SC, where there is a processor who is known for making wonderful smoked products out of venison.  A buddy of mine from church has in the past given me some venison snack sticks with cheese that he said came from somewhere in Van Wyke, so I asked the processor if he was the one that made the good sticks.  He said, "Here, find out for yourself," opening a small refrigerator and giving Pete and I each a sample of his work.

These were definitely the sticks that I was looking for, so I asked the guy to give me the loins whole, but do the entire rest of the deer in snack sticks.