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Hunting Camp.
Submitted by: Steve O.
Upper MichiganI'm hard working, looking to improve things in my life and those around me every day. I am open to all possibilities that life can offer and bring to me.
Every year my best friend Duke and I go to hunting camp to relax, play cards, and hope to get a nice buck. Unfortunately, we hunt in an area where the odds are low of successfully tagging a nice buck since the deer population is considerably lower in that area than in much of the state. With how work was going, my hunting time was going to be limited to only one weekend, which is quite a bit less than my normal year.
I drive from Illinois to Michigan to pick up Duke and head to camp. We get to camp late Thursday night and unpack. That night as we play cribbage and talk about our hunting strategies for the next three days, I decide to let the cards decide our fate. I told Duke I’m going to flip over a card and whatever number comes up is the size of the buck I am going to shoot this weekend. I flip a card and it’s a 7. He laughs and is like, OK, I will flip one as well! He flips an 8. We both laugh, thinking that the odds of us shooting a 7 and 8-point buck in this area are incredibly low. In fact, we had been hunting up there for 20 years and Duke had only shot two bucks of that caliber.
The next morning we go out and hunt all day long from sunrise to sunset. We see a few deer but nothing we can shoot. We do the same thing on Saturday, again, without success. As we play cards Saturday night knowing that we have to head home after the next day’s hunt, we contemplate if we even want to get up and hunt the next morning. For one thing, it’s 1 a.m. and we are drinking beer and need to be up at 6 a.m. to get to the blinds in the morning. For another, the first two disappointing days have drained us of our positive attitudes. At 5:45 a.m. the alarm goes off. I shut it off and yelled to Duke, hey are you going out this morning? Duke says nope, I’m sleeping in. I’m on the edge of doing the same, but I have this feeling inside that something is different today. I get up and look outside. The weather has changed, it is 30 degrees colder than the previous two days and it is raining. I tell Duke, I’m going out hunting are you sure you are not going? He’s like, yup. I then tell him, I’m going to shoot a buck in your spot. He laughs and says, yeah right, I haven’t seen anything over there but good luck.
I got into Duke’s blind that morning. I’m in the blind for a few minutes when the deer start coming through. At first, it’s a few does, then a spike horn buck, then a three-point, then a four. I am shocked at the deer movement. I noticed more movement to my right and I see a buck running across. I grab my gun trying to get a nice 6-point into my scope for a shot. The buck is behind too many trees. I am not able to get off a clean shot. But before I have time to be disappointed, I see another buck coming from the same area. This time I’m ready and take the shot as the deer is moving past me. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even know how big the deer was. I leave my blind and walk down to where I last saw and shot at the buck.
As I get down there and look at the buck, I realize it is a 7-point buck, what are the odds?! My buddy Duke can’t believe it. He decides to hunt in that same blind that night and as I am driving back to Illinois I get a picture sent to me. Duke shot an 8-point buck in that same blind that night.
This is our best year at hunting camp ever and the one and only time we ever let the cards decide our fate. Thank you for giving us the hope we so desperately needed. You have made believers out of us!