An Epic Deer Tail

 The Riggs Family had a great opening day of deer season.  No, we didn't kill any deer but we had LOTS of good food and family time.  All in all there were eight of us; Ralph, Regan, Claire, Kimberly, Jaden and Ray (all Riggs), my Son-in-law Anson Miller and his twin brother from Illinois, Bryce Miller.  Half of us were scattered out over eighty acres and the other half (Ralph, Claire, Kimberly and Jaden) were in the luxury suite with a heater, individual recliners, computer with wifi, drinks and snacks.  I was on my regular stand at the northwest corner of the eighty and took the picture below just a few minutes after I got in my stand.

Let me explain about my stand...it is not in a tree.  Technically it is a "blind" but I'm the one telling this yarn.  I do not do "stands" (as in fifty feet up in a tree with a two by two platform to stand on) anymore.  I have mild acrophobia and being on anything higher than me gives me the heebe-jeebes.  Also, I'm not as sure on my feet as I was as a young man so...I leave the trees to squirrels!

A few minutes after daylight...just west of my stand....KA-BOOM!!.....and in a few seconds a deer comes running flat out, right across in front of me.  When it is about forty yards from me it does a nose-dive, flips end over end and just lays there.  I keep watching and in a little bit I see a hunter orange hat bobbing around north of where the deer is laying.  I whistle...no response...whistle again...no response.  I finally get up and walk down to where the deer is and get the guys attention..."Hey!  It's right over here".  I introduce myself and find out his name is Kevin and he is really apologetic that he messed up my morning hunt.  I tell him to forget it because it couldn't be helped and I'm glad he got one.  The deer is nice buck except it has one horn broken off (which doesn't make Kevin happy!)  He drags the deer back across the fence and I go back to my stand and back to SLEEP!

In the picture below, the deer fell about fifty feet past the quad-black oak tree in center picture.

You have to be very careful while you are in the woods.  This is why they have hunter-safety courses, to tell about these hazards.  In these courses they tell you about paparazzi squirrels.  They sneak through the woods, jumping from tree to tree, scampering here and there, trying to take pictures of hunters in awkward situations (such as when nature calls).  I had 3,793 of these little buggers around my stand and it seems that one of them stole my phone and took the picture below....