# Fave Deer Camp/Hunting Story?



## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

This might have been done before but thought it would be a good topic for this forum esp. now we are nearing the next gun season opener. I'll start it off:
Took my 9 yr. old son to a friends's property for a couple days of deer hunting. On opening day, just before daylight, I sent him up a favorite ravine to a good stand location I had showed him the evening before. I was going to hunt a ridge opposite of him so I'd be within easy yelling distance if he needed me for any reason. Halfway up, he said "something" was "snarling and growling!" higher up the hillside. It scared him so bad, he went back down the hill towards the cabin until broad daylight and stayed near camp for the entire morning! When I came back down to check on him later, I bumped a nice doe than ran by him, which he shot while in full stride with one shot, for his first deer! From my vantage point, I saw the whole thing, and was amazed(and proud) that he made that shot! Needless to say, that was one of many over the next several years that he has harvested since!


----------



## stano (Apr 24, 2007)

This might turn into a "First deer" story topic...

I hunted long and hard through some nasty stuff through my first few seasons. We have a lease in Ashtabula County with several hundred acres. I remember that cold dreary day during muzzleloader season. It was just me and him. We hunted for most of the day when we decided that he would put on a few drives for me. Prior to this particular season, I had missed a few and really wanted to show my dad that I could do it. Anyways, he stationed me in an old stand with my brand new muzzeloader that he got for me for Christmas. He started walking in a big half circle so he could push the thicket that I was looking into. As soon his orange disappeared, a herd of deer came pouncing through the saplings and prickers straight at me. I put my sight on the lead deer and for the first time, I remember waiting for the perfect shot. They kept coming and then finally stopped 20 yards in front of me. I pulled the trigger and dropped the front doe in her steps. I was shaking so bad. I couldn't beleive it happened. After watching the rest of the deer take off into the woods, I saw the trailing deer was a big 8point. I didn't care though. I was just so happy that I could finally show show my dad. He eventually made his way to me. He initially thought I accidentally shot while climbing up into the stand. I pretended like nothing happened until I showed him the white belly. It was one of the happiest days of my life 20 yards from me...He was so pumped that he could be part of it. Afterall, if it wasn't for him, I would have never got to shoot, or take a breath of air for that matter...Happy hunting!


----------



## Bulldawg (Dec 3, 2007)

c. j. stone said:


> This might have been done before but thought it would be a good topic for this forum esp. now we are nearing the next gun season opener. I'll start it off:
> Took my 9 yr. old son to a friends's property for a couple days of deer hunting. On opening day, just before daylight, I sent him up a favorite ravine to a good stand location I had showed him the evening before. I was going to hunt a ridge opposite of him so I'd be within easy yelling distance if he needed me for any reason. Halfway up, he said "something" was "snarling and growling!" higher up the hillside. It scared him so bad, he went back down the hill towards the cabin until broad daylight and stayed near camp for the entire morning! When I came back down to check on him later, I bumped a nice doe than ran by him, which he shot while in full stride with one shot, for his first deer! From my vantage point, I saw the whole thing, and was amazed(and proud) that he made that shot! Needless to say, that was one of many over the next several years that he has harvested since!


I am curious what the snarling and growling was ?????? lol


----------



## Minnowhead (Jan 12, 2011)

A buddy told me this one.
Three of them went bowhunting in southern Ohio. At noon they all met back at the camper for lunch. Only two of them showed up and they compared hunting stories with each other. The third hunter appeared with a camo bandana around his head. He said, "Hey guys look what I found underneath my treestand this morning!" pointing to the bandana. The other hunter quickly said, "Yeah, that was mine. I used it to wipe my ARSE last weekend when I was down here!".


----------



## killingtime (Apr 29, 2009)

years ago my buddy was deer hunting in a fence row in a hunk of a tree that was hollowed out and this fox squirrel kept barking at him from a tree next to him. he said the squirrel stopped barking for awhile so he thought it left. he was sitting there all quiet and half asleep and all the sudden the squirrel jumped on his head and gets his claws tangled up in his knit orange hat. the squirrel climbed up the tree with the hat stuck in one of his paws before it came loose. my buddy said it scared him so bad he seen his life flash before his eyes. we went back that afternoon and a buddy of ours climbed the tree andgot his hat.


----------



## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Bulldawg said:


> I am curious what the snarling and growling was ?????? lol


We will never know. Now at 35, he still "steps lightly" while in that particular ravine!!


----------



## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

I guess my favorite would have to be when my good buddy Elmer and I went to muzzle loader hunt at Salt Fork. There were so many hunters I went to the center of a large field so they could see me and not shoot me. Elmer wondered off somewhere for about an hour. Later he came back and said to me " you're going to hate me. I shot a nice buck down by the lake and we're going to have to drag it out."
He had gone down in the woods near the lake and was sitting on the ground leaning back against a log when he saw the deer jump in the water on the other side of the bay. It swam across the bay straight to where he was sitting. It got out of the water and shook the water off like a dog and was standing on shore when he shot it. It turned, ran back into the water swam out about 20 yards and died.
Elmer had to strip down to his undershorts and wade out to get it. By the time he reached it he was up to his neck in water. He was able to get a hold of its tail and pull it back in. The water was frigid as the weekend before there had been several inches of snow there.
In the meantime another hunter came along and was talking with him and Elmer told him what happened so the guy decided to sit there and see if any more deer would swim across.
I came back there with Elmer and I said if we could find someone with a boat maybe they could haul the deer across the bay to the boatramp and save us a long drag. I told Elmer I would walk down the shoreline a ways and see if there were any guys in boats that might help us. Elmer had told the other hunter if a deer swam across toward him he had to wait until it got out of the water to shoot. The guy must have gotten excited because he didn't wait.
As I was walkiong along shore I heard a shot behind me and I heard the bullet pass over me and hit the water out near a marker buoy. I at first thought someone was shooting at the buoy but that wasn't the case. I turned to look back and saw a wake in the water and knew right away what had taken place. The other hunter watched another buck swim toward him but he shot at it before it got out of the water. He winged it and the bullet ricocheted off the water over my head and out into the bay. The deer ran up into the woods and disappeared. I don't know if the guy ever tracked it down or if another hunter got it ?
Shortly after this an older gentleman came rowing a boat out of the back of the bay and he was hunting too. We aksed if we could load the deer into his boat and row to the boat ramp across the bay. Elmer offered to pay him and the man said no that he knew what it was like to have to make a long drag and so we loaded the deer into the boat and Elmer rowed across the bay with the deer and the other man while I went back to the truck and drove around to meet them. 
Elmer offered to pay him again but he refused any money. Elmer gave him his business card and told him if he was ever in our area to let him know and he woud take him out and buy him the best dinner he ever had. 
Elmer had that deer's head mounted and it is at his daughter's house to this day. Unfortunately Elmer and his wife were both killed along with another lady in an automobile accident nine years ago. I know if Elmer had been driving they would still be here today.


----------



## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Great story, knew Elmer well, great guy/good friend! Terrible ending though-very sad indeed! He took me pheasant hunting when I first arrived in Akron in 1969. That day he made the only double kill, on wild(cock) pheasants that flew up at the same time, I have ever witnessed!


----------



## Fishstix (Aug 16, 2005)

Great stories thus far. Every histarical story I can think of involve a hunting buddy of my father and I who is no longer with us. First, in relation to the Salt Fork story, my dad's buddy once shot a really nice 10 point swimming across the lake on our property. Apparently, he was walking around the lake back to the truck for lunch and saw this buck jump across the road and jump into the lake. He watched it a while before he realized he needed to get in position for a shot. He started back around the lake and the buck spotted him and took an angle to the other end of the lake. He finally got himself into position and shot the buck at 100 yds with his muzzleloader as soon as he step out of the water. To this day, it is still one of the biggest bucks taken off our property.

One other time, we were getting dressed before heading into the woods. He says to my dad, "I know as soon as I get the coveralls on, I'll have to take a crap." Just as he predicted, he gets fully clothed in his hunting gear and has to crap, so dad tells him to take his coveralls off and go. He didn't feel like putting them back on, so he goes out in the woods and uses the restroom. As the two of them are walking down the logging road, dad behind his buddy, dad gets irritated because he thinks his buddy keeps passing gas. About 15 minutes after shooting light, dad sees his buddy walking back down the logging road toward the trailor. When we got back to the trailor, we come to find out that his buddy had crapped all over the sleeve of his coveralls. I am seriously laughing as I type this.

Oddly enough, the third story involves poop again. We used to go down for the entire week of gun season and stay in the trailor. On Wednesday one year, our buddy's wife surprised us with a hot meal. It was really cold that year, so we were excited to get a nice meal. Well his wife steps into the trailor and we realize she has poop all over her shoes. Needless to say, as she walked to the trailor, she steped into a big pile of her husband's #2. Like I said, it was cold that year, so he decided to not venture very far from the trailor to go that evening. The best part of the story is that she had just bought the shoes that afternoon and they were completely white. Dad and I still get a good laugh out of that one to this day.

There are many more stories that come to mind, but these are the ones that stick out the most. Like I said before, our buddy is no longer with us. Dad hunted with him for nearly 35 years, while I only hunted with him for 15 years. With that said, hunting has never been the same since his passing. We always enjoyed anticipating opening day because dad and I both knew there would be some type of new shinanigans he would give us to laugh about.


----------



## bdawg (Apr 14, 2009)

Here's a story about my State Route 250 buck-

Dad and I were taking a lunch break from hunting at Tappan Lake and walked down to our car that was parked along SR 250. We're sitting in the truck eating sandwiches when a buck jumps out of the woods across the bay from us and starts running down the road directly toward us! The buck crosses both lanes and goes to the guardrail with the thought of jumping into the lake and swimming across the lake. Then changes its mind, crosses back across the road in front of a semi and runs down the road a ways until it is across the bay and jumps into the woods not 20 yards from us! 

We finished our lunch and made a plan to find this buck. We knew about which area it would likely hole up in, so Dad went to that area while I went the long way around to a good standing spot on the top of a ridge. Right after I got there, that buck comes running up the hill with a herd of does and stops 10 yards from me! Would have been an easy shot, but a 6" tree was between me and him so I could only see his hind quarters and front legs! So I'm standing there in herd of deer frozen in a standoff! I decide to shoot the hindquarters before he runs off. I do that and they take off with me firing 2 more shots at him. Now, I'm all disappointed and we're both tired from the hiking. However, we know where the deer have gone and of another good spot to stand for a drive. I get in position and not 10 minutes later that buck is trotting towards me 20 yards away! I fire 3 more shots at him and he continues down the hill! I figured I had missed him, but I see him through the woods slow down and turn downhill towards the roadway. I watch him cross the road and walk slowly along the guardrail next to a swamp, spurting blood out of his back leg. He stops and lays down and expires right next to the guardrail! Turns out I luckily hit and artery in his leg. Good thing he went down cause I was out of ammunition at that point. That was my first buck. A small 8 pointer. 

I wore my dad out that day. He had to walk all the way back to 250 to get the truck while I gutted the deer on the side of the road!


----------



## InlandKid (Aug 29, 2006)

My family owns a very large deer camp in WV. One trip before deer season everyone decided to go out on the four wheelers except grandpa who wanted to stay back. When we came back it was about dusk and grandpa was sitting outside with his .22 pistol. My dad asked what he was doing the whole time and grandpa replied he was shooting at the log pile. We all busted out laughing because the "log pile" grandpa was shooting was the gas cans. Thankfully grandpa didn't hit any or it would have been a disaster. Every time we stop at a gas station with grandpa we ask him if he needs a new target.

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------

