If you have been reading some of my recent posts, you are probably aware that I have been talking about some of my exploits and experiences after being assigned to the JITC at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. My story today centers around a subject that is near and dear to my heart, hunting (finally). More specifically, my post today deals with deer hunting. The deer hunt that year was the first deer hunt since we had moved into our newly built custom home out on the edge of town in Sierra Vista. That meant that I had to drive a little bit further each day to get to work at the JITC. However, instead of wasting ten or fifteen minutes driving to the Post gym before working out each morning, I just worked out at home. I believe that I mentioned in a previous post that my wife and I had designed a perfect gym in the center of our custom home. It was supposed to be in an Arizona room. It was sandwiched between our master bedroom and our family room. It had three doors. Two of the doors were French doors. One set of French doors opened to the master bedroom. The other set of French doors opened to the family room. The third door was a standalone door that opened to the patio. That door was adjacent to the French doors that open to the family room. As I previously stated that room was originally designed to be a weight room and gym. Yeah, right. Didn’t happen. My wife relegated me to the shed. She told me to set up shop out there. She said the shed would do just fine as a gym. As a result, the Arizona room became a sitting room. Although, I don’t really recall anyone doing much sitting in that room. Go figure. But I digress. That year, my daughter would also be accompanying me on the deer hunt. It was a very wet year during the deer hunt. As a result, we were seeing a lot of deer signs but we weren’t seeing many deer. They just were not moving unless they absolutely had to. Most of the time, we saw deer at inopportune times when we were driving between locations. By the time we would dismount from the vehicle, the deer would be gone or we would not have a shot. Oh, there were times that my daughter wanted to shoot. But I told her that she couldn’t hit something a mile away. She simply wasn’t that good a marksman. Christmas had come and gone that year, but neither one of us had filled our tags yet. I was starting to get a little bit concerned. The day after my daughter’s birthday, we ran into a little bit of luck. It had rained most of the morning, so we just ended up doing a lot of four-wheel driving and off-roading. Around midmorning, the rain let up. We had pulled into a low marshy area and dismounted. We started to walk along a deer trail that led past acorn trees. That was obviously a spot where the deer went to eat. There was a fresh sign along that trail so we kept following the trail. We were approaching a thicket that looked like a bedding area for the deer. I told my daughter to get ready because there might be deer in that thicket. When we were about 200 yards away from the thicket, it started to rain again. I told my daughter to be ready to shoot because the deer were not going to move unless we scared them. Due to the rain, the deer would certainly not move unless they were properly motivated. I told my daughter that deer were like people. They hated the rain. The only difference was that they didn’t have rain jackets and umbrellas to help keep them dry. Not that rain jackets and umbrellas really work to keep you dry in a good soaking rain storm. Cuz they sure as hell don’t keep me dry. But they give you the illusion of staying dry or somewhat dry. As a result, humans will tolerate the rain for brief periods of time if they have a rain jacket or an umbrella or both, preferably both. Unless of course, there is a helluva rainstorm accompanied by strong wind. Cuz we all know what wind does to umbrellas. Oh hell yeah. It bends the shit out of them and tries to whip them out of your hands. I am sure that you have seen umbrellas mangled and destroyed by strong winds in a rainstorm. Oh yeah. Such fun. Plus, it isn’t practical for a hunter to carry an umbrella. Not to mention that it just wouldn’t look right. No Sir. Not at all. An umbrella would send the wrong message. But I digress. When we were about thirty-five yards away from the thicket, I grabbed my daughter and had her stop. There was a small berm in front of the thicket. Just beyond that berm there stood three does with their heads facing out at us from the thicket. The one on our right looked to be the smallest so I told her to aim for just below the head of the one in the middle. She asked if she should shoot right then, and I said yes. I told her we wouldn’t get a second shot. I told her that the deer would run as soon as she fired. I knelt so that she could use my shoulder as a bipod to steady her rifle for the shot. When she made the shot, the deer fell where it stood, but the other two ran. I had expected the other two deer to run. We waited a few minutes to make sure that the deer was dead. Then, my daughter walked over and tagged the deer. We field dressed the deer right there, harvesting all of the internal organs while we field dressed it. Then, we moved the deer to the vehicle and drove back to the game management center to weigh it. That deer was the first deer that I hung in my shed at home to skin and butcher. My daughter hunted her deer with no other exercises in futility (aside from the rain).
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