LAST DAY

 As is our tradition, we put on New Year's Eve deer drives here in Glen Wild. UB, Savage and Bird were in attendance. The first leg was the push the cemetery between Little Bill's house and the cut. UB was in the stand. I was on the ground near Carlito's stand and Savage and Bird drove. 1O mins. in and I saw a deer coming my way. "Baaaaaaa....." I bleated 3 times. The deer stopped dead in front of me at 20 yards. I got on her and fired. "P-ssssss-ffffffttttttttttt......FUCK!" came the sound from where I was kneeling. The gun had misfired AGAIN! For some reason my bullets are infested with .45 ca. slugs mixed in the proper .50 cal. shot. While sighting the gun in I had had this happen, but disregarded the extra-easy slide down the barrel, thinking the powder had gotten wet somehow. Now I know if the bullet goes down too easy, it has to be removed. Next year I'm tossing out all my random crap and getting more serious with my loads. NEXT YEAR! It sounds so depressing and very far away.

The second leg to this drive was for Bird and Savage to drive the truck down toward Julie Picasso's. Bird would get off by Carlito's new driveway by the schoolhouse while Savage set up right above Ray Gilkey's grave in the cut. UB and I would then continue the drive around RNButch's ridge. I went low. UB stayed high. Late in the drive Bird shot. Then another shot came from Savage. The radio crackled. Bird missed his shot while Savage said he had 20 deer come by him. "There was a nice buck....." he reported "I think I hit him. He acted hit." We all converged on Savage's position. I never saw a deer.

We looked for blood. Nothing. Then UB found a tiny bit of hair. No longer than five minutes later UB spotted half the rack sticking out of the swamp. We were all elated and went to check out the buck. It was a nice 8 point with a golden rack, the same one I had missed days earlier. The unknown was now known. I had missed that buck clean. I must've rushed the shot and shot over him. I was relieved and haven't stopped kicking myself for missing that easy shot. Yet, in all honestly I can admit, that if I couldn't shoot that deer my second choice would be that one of my great friends or brother would shoot him. Thanks were given all around.

So that's it. The season is over. I have what's left of two deer in the freezer and one hanging. All three turned out to be bucks - one a button, one an eight, and the other a shed. Bird got a six. Savage also got three bucks - a six, a button and this nice eight. UB got skunked. It happens. We all had our fuck ups and successes. Savage never ceases to impress me with his shooting skills. After losing the sight in his right eye he taught himself to shoot lefty and can still knock down a running buck with one shot. I'm blessed to have such good, trustworthy, skilled, safe, friends to share my deer season with. Unless I get obsessed with another writing project I'll keep at it here at HWS. Who knows what the the new year will bring. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to all my readers. Much love. 

MO