For Thanksgiving this year Sarah and I went to Louisiana.  That is where her Grandparents from her Mom’s side live.  They have a nice place down there with a few acres.  We call them Granny and Pap.  Pap is quite the deer hunter.  Well pretty much her whole family is quite the deer hunters.  I’ve really never much gotten into it.  I do it just as a form of relaxing while I’m there because, I guess everyone else is so why not.  I think he has about 6 or 7 stands that he keeps up year round.  He clears paths around the stand and keeps corn out for them all year so that when his grand-kids and kids come in they can get them a deer.  Well my brother-in-law, Matt, hadn’t ever seen a buck in the wild.  That is until Friday, Nov. 23.  He got out in the woods right before day light so he could get situated in his stand before daylight.  On his way to the stand he ran into 2 doe.  He was certain then that he wouldn’t see anything that day.  The sun was coming up about the time that he got in his stand, he was trying to get everything settled in his stand when he heard something coming behind.  He thought oh them crazy squirrels.  Then he heard a grunt.  His first thought was that wasn’t a squirrel.  He’s on a lean too that is somewhat crooked, and he’s trying to look behind him to find the noise.  Next thing he knows he has an 8 point right below him.  He must had caught the sent of those doe, because he was on a mission.  He was drooling at this big buck that came right to him.  He was getting away in a hurry so he whistles at him.  The buck looks back and keeps on going,  so Matt whistles a little louder.  This time he got that bucks attention.  He looks back and kinda turns a little.  Matt was so excited that he couldn’t keep his gun steady and when he shot he got him right in the stomach.  The buck was off to the races.  Matt being the intelligent hunter that he is knows that if he chases him then he will run for hours.  So he gets down and checks for blood.  Matt found a good blood trail, so he thought he’d give him so time to calm down hoping he’d lay down.  He comes back to the house and the real hunt is on. 

We trailed this buck into a big field where it was nearly impossible to find any blood.  After about an hour of looking through the field someone found some on the other side and we were off again.  Then we came to a creek.  It took us what seemed like forever to get across the creek, but once we did the trail was very evident.  The water from the creek must had opened up the wound because it was much easier from there.  That is until we hit the swamp.  The water was a foot deep everywhere it seemed.  Not to mention that blood is really hard to find in water.  Once again we found the trail.  The neighbors had this dog out there and he kept running all over the place.  We came up on a trail that went two ways.  Matt and I went one way and two other guys followed the dog the other way.  Matt and I found the blood trail but it was going in circles.  Then we hear bring the gun.  Matt and I could tell that they found the Big Buck.  We couldn’t barely hear them and the gras and brush was taller than I am.  I’m 6′3″, so that is pretty tall.  We were trying to follow their voice and we ran in to that blamed creek and we couldn’t find a good place to cross.

 I thought I find a good way across.  There was a small flexible tree that leaning over.  So I just grabbed on to the top of this tree thinking that it would land me on the other side.  I got about half way over when the tree snapped in half.  This creek was about 5 or 6 feet across and I found out the hard way how cold water is in the winter time.  It was only about 3 feet deep in that spot so I just crossed the rest of the way.  The other 2 guys were right there when we got across.  Matt found a beaver damn a little ways down and crossed over it.  That crazy dog had found this Buck.  He was about ready to charge that dog.  The two guys were holding back the dog so the Buck lays down.  He was ready to give in.  Matt finished him off.

Then we had to find our way back out of this swamp with 170 dressed out 8 point buck.  I tell you he was a monster.  We had to holler back at Pap so that we knew our way out.  We were almost back and I hollered and asked him if they found him.  They knew partially that we had him though.  We got him back to the house safely but that was quite the adventure.

Philip