I've written about this hunt before, so forgive me if you've read and remember it.
By 1970 I was 16 years old and had yet to see a live deer. I was living in Richmond, Indiana and no one saw deer around there in 1970.
I had been "hunting" with a Ben Pearson Cougar recurve for a couple of years. My quarry was about anything that I encountered in the little woods near my house; chipmunks and rabbits mostly.
A friend on my sophomore cross-country team invited me to go deer hunting in Brown County Indiana, about 120 miles from where I lived. I jumped at the chance. I had hunted in KY with my dad and a rifle the prior two years. I had not seen a live deer on any of those hunts either.
We sharpened up our Bear Razorheads on cedar shafts and joined some older guys from Richmond in a school bus "camp" they operated adjacent to a graveyard between Nashville and Bloomington, Indiana. I remember eating milk and hamburger from a skillet on toast in that camp. It was good.
On the opening Saturday my friend and I didn't hunt. Instead he showed me around the area we would be hunting. I had never seen deer tracks or other deer sign before.
That first evening he lead me to an elevated tree stand made of tree branches that was about 15' off the ground. I climbed in. Within about 30 minutes an adult walked under my tree and informed me the stand was his. He was polite about it. I climbed down and asked if he could point me to another stand? He pointed across the "bald knob" about 200 yards away. I went over there and climbed up a hickory about 15 yards from the no-hunting zone of Brown County State Park.
About an hour or so before dark a small buck (5-points) jumped over the scraggly park border fence and stood in front of my stand. He was twitching his tail and nosing something on the ground. I thought, "My God that's a deer!" I shot that deer between behind the shoulder blades as he faced away from me. I know, I should have waited for a better shot. We found that deer about 150 yards away in the bottom of a creek just outside the park. I had killed the first live deer I had ever seen!
Fast forward. I finished high school and had just graduated with forestry and wildlife degrees from Purdue University in 1977. I had a new 4x4 ford truck and was about set to go off to my first "forestry" job in Colorado. I was showing off with the truck and got stuck in the mud just off the paved road. I learned to lock in the hubs BEFORE you get in the mud.
A faded red International Scout pulled into where I was stuck. The fellow hooked up a chain and pulled me out. We introduced ourselves. His name was Don Pierce. The name sounded familiar. I asked him if he was a bowhunter (he was about 40 and I was 23). Yep, he said. I asked if he ever hunted in Brown County Indiana. Yep, he told me again. I then asked if he ever hunted a place at the end of Schooner Valley Road outside of Nashville, Indiana. Yep, again. (Mind you, we are having this discussion 120 miles from Brown County in Richmond, IN).
Finally, ignoring the goose bumps I asked if he hunted a double stemmed hickory tree about 15 yards from the Brown County State Park fence. He didn't answer immediately. He seemed stunned. Then he told me he built that stand. I informed him I killed the first deer I ever saw with a cedar arrow from that stand 7 years prior. He had carved his name in the stem of that tree while in the stand and I remembered reading it there.
We both freaked out!
Topic: The Serendipity 5-Point (Read 904 times)
