I have titled this post "The Deer". The primary reason is that I had been pursuing this deer for over twenty five years. Over the years beginning at about age thirty-five I have enjoyed the pursuit of the trophy deer. I did not grow up hunting though I had a grandfather who supplied meat for his family during the 1930's to 1940's and perhaps I inherited my love for hunting from him? I do owe many hunters over the years a debt of gratitude for working with me on how to hunt and even how to dress a deer. How else could one learn the correct way to hunt unless he has teachers and I was blessed with many. Perhaps the one I remember most was a gentleman from Sonora, TX named George Washington Parks or G.W. to his friends. He was in his seventies when he taught me most of what I know about hunting and I am forever grateful.
Now to the hunt. I was on a company outing with customers from the poultry industry hunting with us in Midway, AL. We hunted a plantation known as "Paco Plantation". Midway is south of Union Springs if that helps you any. The weekend we went it was the peak of the "Rut" but it was also the peak of winter in South Alabama. I would never believe it could get that cold in the south, but believe me with a twenty mile per hour north wind and temps from 10 to 20 degrees F, it can be unbearable. It was my first time to ever hunt with a heater in my shooting house and I have hunted in Northern Arkansas and probably I had better sense when the weather got that cold and we also did not have shooting houses. We hunted Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning. There were eight hunters on the trip including the owner of our company, Tommy Bagwell and his son Leland. The trip was organized by Fred Cespedes, the best organizer I have met in all my years. I will always be thankful that we were able to make this hunt.
To get to the story now, I mentioned that cold temps. Most of us just hung on for dear life in our stands due to the high winds. No one saw any shooter buck on Friday or Saturday morning. Fast Forward to about 4:00 PM on Saturday evening and the wind stopped blowing and the temperature was bearable. As I recall one of the guys on our hunt had an eight pointer before he could get in his stand. Another was taken shortly thereafter. A total of five hunters had shooter bucks harvested by 5:00 PM or so. One of the guys had a fourteen pointer. My deer was officially an eleven pointer though many have looked at the mount and think it was a twelve or thirteen pointer. We had the greatest one hour of hunting I have ever experienced. I have hunted in Texas on several occasions and while we took several deer we never had the quality we had on this hunt. I do not have a quality photo of all the deer but believe me, five bucks eight point or larger in one hour is unheard of and we were all blessed to have been a part of the hunt.
An interesting thing about my deer is (you may not believe what I am about to share) that the night before I had a dream and the very situation was in my dream. The deer came out of the woods one hundred fifty yards away and you did not need binoculars to know if he was a shooter. I did not do a lot other than be at the right place at the right time. I harvested this deer with one shot (I'll admit not exactly where I aimed). I shot this deer with an my first deer rifle (a 300 Savage saddle gun). This gun is an old gun with lever action. It is the same gun my son and I both used to take our first deer. I had a 7 mm magnum that would have perhaps been a better gun for this situation, but I felt the one I used was very appropriate as it could be my last deer I will take. Needless to say it was quite a few minutes before I could even move or go to the deer. My heart was beating non-stop and it was one of the thrills of my lifetime.
Another interesting fact is that this deer was probably only three and one-half years old according to the taxidermist (more about him later). Kind of in the prime of his life. Believe it or not at age 58 when I harvested this deer, I felt like I was also in the prime of my life. It was as if we were brought together for this event. Looking back I had some symptoms of my disease even then and my doctor confirmed this during a visit recently.
I felt a real kinship with this deer and felt that God was truly in this situation and I thank Him for caring so much about me that He helped me fulfill one of my life's goals. When I picked up the mount, the taxidermist, Chris Fortner of Fortner Taxidermy 770-480-5241 or fortnertaxidermy.com and I had a great visit. I had called him earlier and told him my health situation and told him that he might want to get the mount done pretty quickly. When I met Chris his work was tremendous. He was a great Christian guy and he said his prayer was that I would be back again this year with another deer for mounting and he genuinely meant what he said. We had a great visit and again I think God ordained our meeting.
I have spent way too much time on this story but it was one of the really important events of my life...almost up there with my children's birth's etc. (just kidding). I have tried to include a photo of the mount and I urge you to use Chris if the need arises. I also want to thank all the guys on the hunt and the folks at Paco for making us all comfortable during the tough weather. I must not fail to mention that Paco has nice rooms, great food service and plenty of deer. The ladies who prepared our meals knew how to cook deer meat. It was the best venison this old hunter ever tasted and I have tasted a lot. The owners are right there with you and are great people. You can google Paco Plantation for more info. If you made it all the way to the end, God bless you as I know it must have been a chore. I can't seem to finish a good story.
Doug
Now to the hunt. I was on a company outing with customers from the poultry industry hunting with us in Midway, AL. We hunted a plantation known as "Paco Plantation". Midway is south of Union Springs if that helps you any. The weekend we went it was the peak of the "Rut" but it was also the peak of winter in South Alabama. I would never believe it could get that cold in the south, but believe me with a twenty mile per hour north wind and temps from 10 to 20 degrees F, it can be unbearable. It was my first time to ever hunt with a heater in my shooting house and I have hunted in Northern Arkansas and probably I had better sense when the weather got that cold and we also did not have shooting houses. We hunted Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning. There were eight hunters on the trip including the owner of our company, Tommy Bagwell and his son Leland. The trip was organized by Fred Cespedes, the best organizer I have met in all my years. I will always be thankful that we were able to make this hunt.
To get to the story now, I mentioned that cold temps. Most of us just hung on for dear life in our stands due to the high winds. No one saw any shooter buck on Friday or Saturday morning. Fast Forward to about 4:00 PM on Saturday evening and the wind stopped blowing and the temperature was bearable. As I recall one of the guys on our hunt had an eight pointer before he could get in his stand. Another was taken shortly thereafter. A total of five hunters had shooter bucks harvested by 5:00 PM or so. One of the guys had a fourteen pointer. My deer was officially an eleven pointer though many have looked at the mount and think it was a twelve or thirteen pointer. We had the greatest one hour of hunting I have ever experienced. I have hunted in Texas on several occasions and while we took several deer we never had the quality we had on this hunt. I do not have a quality photo of all the deer but believe me, five bucks eight point or larger in one hour is unheard of and we were all blessed to have been a part of the hunt.
An interesting thing about my deer is (you may not believe what I am about to share) that the night before I had a dream and the very situation was in my dream. The deer came out of the woods one hundred fifty yards away and you did not need binoculars to know if he was a shooter. I did not do a lot other than be at the right place at the right time. I harvested this deer with one shot (I'll admit not exactly where I aimed). I shot this deer with an my first deer rifle (a 300 Savage saddle gun). This gun is an old gun with lever action. It is the same gun my son and I both used to take our first deer. I had a 7 mm magnum that would have perhaps been a better gun for this situation, but I felt the one I used was very appropriate as it could be my last deer I will take. Needless to say it was quite a few minutes before I could even move or go to the deer. My heart was beating non-stop and it was one of the thrills of my lifetime.
Another interesting fact is that this deer was probably only three and one-half years old according to the taxidermist (more about him later). Kind of in the prime of his life. Believe it or not at age 58 when I harvested this deer, I felt like I was also in the prime of my life. It was as if we were brought together for this event. Looking back I had some symptoms of my disease even then and my doctor confirmed this during a visit recently.
I felt a real kinship with this deer and felt that God was truly in this situation and I thank Him for caring so much about me that He helped me fulfill one of my life's goals. When I picked up the mount, the taxidermist, Chris Fortner of Fortner Taxidermy 770-480-5241 or fortnertaxidermy.com and I had a great visit. I had called him earlier and told him my health situation and told him that he might want to get the mount done pretty quickly. When I met Chris his work was tremendous. He was a great Christian guy and he said his prayer was that I would be back again this year with another deer for mounting and he genuinely meant what he said. We had a great visit and again I think God ordained our meeting.
I have spent way too much time on this story but it was one of the really important events of my life...almost up there with my children's birth's etc. (just kidding). I have tried to include a photo of the mount and I urge you to use Chris if the need arises. I also want to thank all the guys on the hunt and the folks at Paco for making us all comfortable during the tough weather. I must not fail to mention that Paco has nice rooms, great food service and plenty of deer. The ladies who prepared our meals knew how to cook deer meat. It was the best venison this old hunter ever tasted and I have tasted a lot. The owners are right there with you and are great people. You can google Paco Plantation for more info. If you made it all the way to the end, God bless you as I know it must have been a chore. I can't seem to finish a good story.
Doug
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