One of my most memorable hunts...without a doubt. I was pre-making some cubby sets and scouting around for trapping season when I found a well-traveled area on the edge of a swamp. I came back that afternoon and set up a stand.
The property I was on belongs to a neighbor on the opposite side of the lake that I live on. Normally, I would just drive down the road I live on, turn left, and go across a bridge to get over to where he lives. But, we had a big storm this past summer, and the bridge got washed away. So, instead of driving all the way around the lake (about 8 or 9 miles out of my way), I decided to just float my canoe across the lake.
I had to float across, bank the canoe on another neighbors place, and then walk a few hundred yards to get to the stand. A big trapper and primitive-type fella who I met here in OK gave me some nice obsidian heads to try.
So, I took this one at about 8 yards with a self-nocked cedar shaft with the stone head. The shot was at a bit of an angle, and the arrow went through the liver and one lung. It buried up almost to the fletching even after knicking a rib. Unfortunately, he decided to run into the swamp and die face-first in a foot or so of muddy, stagnate water about 60 yards from the stand.
It was an interesting time gettimg him out of there. Then, I drug him the few hundred yards back to the canoe. I was almost out of light by the time I snapped a quick pic and got everything loaded.
By the time I paddled back to the cabin in the dark, I was feeling as rough as my dirty deer looked....
I won't forget this one!
