Good Friends AND GIANT BUCKS

I was up well before dawn that late November morning and drove my truck slowly toward the area I planned to hunt.

When I said I “drove slowly,” I meant it. Rain had fallen most of the night and continued that morning, although it was forecast to stop right before sunrise. That was part of a perfect situation that had me stoked to hunt a new stand and property for the first time. I was also enthused because the firearms deer season had just ended, and I surmised the pressure had likely pushed my target buck into a pocket of secure cover — if he had survived.

15 MINUTES

I pulled up to the spot and sat in the pitch-black darkness as the rain continued to fall. As badly as I wanted to hunt the stand during those conditions, I didn’t cherish the thought of getting soaked before legal shooting light. Fishing my cell phone from my pocket, I checked the weather radar and saw that the rain would end soon, so I held tight to the dry truck as long as I dared.