Creeping through the forest, just before dawn, I went. Silently. Out to my deer stand. I climbed up, with shards of terror in vein and cautiously sat down and worried my way through loading my father's borrowed rifle. And there I sat. Quietly.
We'll meet back at camp around 9, they said. To my drowsy eyes, the four hour sit revealed my imagination in the scenery of the woods. My mind was full of trickery and admittedly, I got sleepy. So sleepy that I felt the need to unload the rifle.
Around 8:45, I lowered my rifle on the rope and slid down the ladder, bag in hand. I crept back through the forest, onto the trail and up near Casey's stand. He looked down towards me, holding his hands up in a STOP position. He began pointing into some bushes about 10 feet in front of his stand and making the universal symbol for "Sleep" with his palms against his cheek.
I think I get it, but I'm not sure! Something is sleeping in front of his stand. But I can't see it. I'm on the ground. I stood there, quietly... He's motioning something to me, so I start stealthily walking up the trail. Well, he starts silently ranting and waving his hands in the air and pointing at my rifle's open action. I sigh, and put one shell into the chamber, thinking how the hell do you expect me to shoot a deer I can't effing see?
When suddenly! Three larger deer come running right behind me and across the trail. The Doe that I'd been 'stalking' jumped up and was looking right into my eyes. I just stood there, stunned as Casey's yelling, SHOOT IT!
Needless to say, all four deer got away. We laughed. And that was that.
A few more weeks into deer camp, I'd been scouting all kinds of deer. They were everywhere around my stand. Apparently, I had the best spot. That said, one I deemed to small to shoot at. Another was so close that I couldn't figure out what I was aiming at in my site. And I still wasn't sure I could kill a deer. I was a hunter all right!
Our last day of deer camp, I come back for round two at 3:30 or so and head to my stand. I get situated and along comes Casey. Standing at the foot of my tree, he says, "I'm coming up there for awhile." Well, his version of stealth mode is quite different than mine. He came STOMPING up the ladder with a vengeance. It was as though Big Foot and the Incredible Hulk were both on their way to get me and the seat under my butt was jostling and moving around with the wavering tree.
"YOU NEED TO GET DOWN AND YOU NEED TO GET DOWN RIGHT NOW!" I whisper yelled at him.
"What? It's fine, knock it off." He said, and continued up with only the slightest bit more caution.
He got up to the top and we managed to maneuver both of us into the small seat. And that's when I discovered that Casey's version of "being very quiet" was also radically different from mine. He sat there burping, farting, talking away. Farts so stinky, they got stuck in his warm gear and every time he stood up, or sat down the swamp gas was actually visible in the air. At one point, he even peed off the side.
There was one small moment in time that I thought, this isn't so bad. It's kind of nice having a buddy, it's warm and less boring. Alas, the swamp gas would prevail and I'd question the fleeting, fuzzy feeling.
Like I said, I'd been scouting and knew exactly when the deer would start to come out. About 10 minutes beforehand, I looked at him and said, "It's almost witching hour, you best be quiet!" He stood, facing the opposite direction, while I sat and covered the other ground. Not 15 minutes from those words, he motioned to me that he saw one. "I'm going to shoot it." He whispered.
The deer moved and he darted towards my side of the tree, hovering over me. I covered my ears, bent down and without words became a human tripod. BANG. We saw it fall, not more than 5 yards away from the stand.
"We have to wait at least 15 minutes, text the others and tell them we got one, but will hunt for another half hour or so." He said.
And I did.
5 minutes later?
"I can't wait any longer, I'm getting down." He said and dropped his bag off the side. We got down, and headed towards the deer. He stopped short in front of me and made violent motions for me to do the same.
My heart started pounding and I imagined the deer getting up and charging both of us. But, it was just Casey being his dramatic self and scaring the shit out of me. We walked closer, clean shot. That deer was dead and HUGE!
And that's my first adventure at deer camp story.
