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The Lady Rolls A Seven
I hunted alone, due to #1 having to work. I don't enjoy hunting alone, but this was the only Saturday during the first half of our muzzleload split season, and I was determined to hunt. Hubby had seen three bucks from his stand earlier that week. I had taken a doe from my stand on Tuesday and since I was allowed another deer on that tag, I wanted a buck.Last year, he went to camp one day without me, I had to stay at home due to illness. He returned with his massive 12pt. So it was my turn. I had hope for similar results and I got them. We awoke at the same time that morning, sat at the kitchen table and drank our first cup of coffee together. I told him I was going to sit in "his stand". He really hated for me to go without him, but it had to be that way. He wished me luck.We dressed, him for work, me in camo and off we went. With a good luck kiss, his last words to me were: " Just don't kill my Big One, ...OK?" and with a smile, he left. His drive was 5 min. to work and mine an hour to camp. Upon arriving there, I unloaded the fourwheeler and rode it to within 20 feet of the stand. I parked it on a fencerow, crossed the fence and climbed into the stand I had used many times during rifle season a few years back. Just last year relenquishing it for a newer one else where on the farm. A light fog was lifting off the large hayfield in the bottom to my left. Directly under my stand was a small patch of over grown weeds and small trees. It is the size of a small garden and we call it the "peapatch". To my right is the fencerow seperating the patch from an over grazed old clover field. A bottom woods on one side and hill woods behind me.After I settle in the stand, I see a large doe coming across the clover field, with her youngster.She is about 100yds out. She spies the ATV and begins that routine...head bobbing, dancing, pounding the front hooves as she walks. I time her. Her dance lasted a full 45 minutes, during which time she got within 40 yards of me. I scoped her, but held my trigger for a buck. She finally decided the threat of the ATV was minor and went on off the ridge, back into the woods. I sat there, using my grunt tube and rattling some antlers for about an hour. Seeing nothing but a few squirrels, I decided to relax and stretch my legs. I stood up in the stand, lite a smoke, took 2 puffs and HE loped from the woods edge into view. All I could see was RACK. A tall brown rack. I turned and smashed out the cigeratte, fumbled for my grunt tube and got out a loud long grunt. He stopped, out in the hayfield, behind a tree (how do they always seem to do that?), but I still saw his head turn toward me. He was 150 yards out, and I wanted him closer if possible. Two short grunts and he rapidly turned in his tracks and headed my way in a medium gallop. He jumped the small ditch and entered the "peapatch". All I could see was his back, neck and head. Man! What a rack.
I eased down in the stand, braced the muzzleloader, hitting something with the barrel made a small noise. "CLINK". He stopped.....again behind a small tree. He was 50 yards from me now and I trembled with excitement as I let out a short breath in the grunt tube. He heard it..took two steps......Ka>>>BOOM. He did a 180 stumble at lightning speed, went 30 yards and down.
I sat there, grinning from ear to ear. Then I thought of calling #1 on my cell phone, but decided not to. *S*.
After smoking a nerve calming cigeratte, I got down, and went to admire my first muzzleload buck with my new Thompson. BTW.. hubby gave me this gun for our 26th anniversary just last month. Won't he be Proud?
I had some dragging to do, so I went to the farmhouse and JP came to help me. He watched me field dress my buck then helped drag him through head high blackberry brairs to the truck. Geez, I got to quit smoking, deer seem to get heavier during dragging, every few yards. *L*
When I got home, it was in the 70's and a warm day. I had to take care of the venison fast. Around 2pm, the phone rang...it was hubby. "Well?? ...did ya get one?" After reliving the hunt for him, I heard a mumble...and then, "three points? up high on one side?" uhoh..... "yeah" I replied. "You GOT MY deer!" Needless to say I was in *warmwater* when he got home. *L* 
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The Men Behind the "Scene" at DeerCamp
Grover and JP are the two brothers who own the farm we hunt on. We met them back in the early 80's.We were hunting the land across the road, and their dog came to us. He was wounded and we applied medicene to his wounds. They drove up and we started talking. A couple of trips later, we were invited to hunt their farm. Little did we know that we had started a relationship that would last for years and bring us all close as family.There were three brothers who lived on the dairy farm back then. Howard, the eldest passed away a few years back. He had went down in the pasture to check on a cow that was calving and never returned. He died there in the field from a massive heartattack. It was a sad day on the farm. Grover being the next eldest, took things over. He and JP sold out of the dairy business and just raise cattle now. Matter of fact, our first small herd of cattle came from their farm.
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A Near Medical Emergency......
JP helped me drag this buck out of the field. He really didn't mind.... It was just those blackberry vines that he minded. *L*. I was dressed in my hunting clothes and camo coveralls, while he had his farm overalls on. They weren't as much protection against the snaggin of those brairs.He would stop every now and then to free himself of one that had "loveingly attached" itself to his leg.It would give me a chance to catch my breath.
Little did I know that my shortness of breath was a sign of something major wrong. In Janurary, I finally went for a physical. With a fairly short treadmill test, I was rushed to the hospital to find a major artery in the left side of my heart blocked.
It was a 95% blockage, one that could have taken me out, if things had happened just right.
After two stents to hold open this artery, and a couple of days rest and relaxation, I am ready for deer season again.
I want to take a minute here to ask all you outdoors people to please be aware of your body. Know that extreme shortness of breath is a warning sign of something going on. Your body is not made of iron, it will wear out. Just be wise, and pay attention, seek medical attention when you feel there is something wrong. All those mornings, I was so winded after climbing into my stand. The dizziness that came with the shortwindness, was a sign that my heart was not getting enough blood supply. I could have easily become one of the hunters that died while out in the woods. But I was given a second chance. And I will be back in my stand this fall, after the "monsterbuck".
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Done Gone And Done It....
Well, "Mr Marlin" as my friends lovinly call him, *L* has gone and done it again. 
He took off to DeerCamp on Sunday, the day after I got my Seven Point, and returned with one bigger. 9pt.Dadgumit, why is it he can't just let me outdo him once??? Just ONCE????? LOL Anyway, he went up, I stayed home, I was tagged out and couldn't hunt. He went to his stand, about fifty yards from the stand I sat in the day before.At about 8:30,(close to same time yesterday) he spied his buck. Two hundred yards off, crossing the huge hayfield. He watched him cross that field and enter the woods on his left at about 150yards. The buck entered the woods' edge, and begin to wrestle some overhanging limbs with his rack. Hubby watched thro his scope and then tried the grunt call. (MY GRUNT CALL, BTW). The wind was swirling and the buck couldn't get a postition on the sound, but he could hear it, cause each time hubby blew on the grunt call, that buck would get madder. He would stomp his front hoof and wrestle the limb harder, shaking his big rack like he was king. Finally, he stepped back to the field's edge and got a position of the grunting sound. He threw his rack up tall and bound straight for hubby in his treestand. He was running so fast, it was hard to keep him in the sights. MrMarlin was just about to whistle to pause him, when the buck looked up toward his tree. SKIDDDDDDDDD. kicking up dirt, he finally came to a complete stop. Just long enough for MrMarlin to squeeze off his shot, broadside, at 50 yards. And another one bites the dust!!
Reckon I should let him use my gruntcall this weekend???
I will get him his own, just like mine.
Gotta love that MAN!  Click on his picture to take you to his website.
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I Wait For the Season to Outdo Him,,,,Just Once!
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Don't ya just love it...when ya hear this sound? Click the start button to hear it again. And you thought I had a bad cough when you clicked on this page...*L* The sound is a "doe cough". It is a sound that deer make to alarm other deer of danger, really not one that you want to hear while you are hunting.
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