#1717257 - 01/10/10 07:26 AM
Speaking of cold weather........
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15499
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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This cold weather has run me inside for the last weekend of the season and has brought back some memories, as well. Please indulge me while I share....
I believe that it was 1975, my second season as a deer hunting novice. I was a senior in high school.
The weatherman had promised snow for that morning. I was anxious to see if he was correct. Dressed in a robe and a pair of house shoes, I braved the below freezing temperatures and walked out to start my car. A couple of inches of snow covered what appeared to be a sheet of ice. I guess the weatherman got it right for once.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say that if I walked out this morning and saw the same icy conditions, I would not proceed as I did that day. It's funny how a 53 year old mind thinks differently than an 18 year old mind....
After getting dressed, I proceeded to load the car, a green Chevrolet Caprice Classic with a half vinyl top. I had yet to own my first truck.
As I backed out of the driveway, I could still hear my mom telling me that I was crazy as she went back to bed. I told her that I would be fine, but I guess that my brother's antics of quite a few years earlier were still fresh in her mind.....It seems that my brother and a friend went duck hunting on the Hatchie River under just these conditions, only maybe a bit worse. When all of the surrounding backwater freezes up, the river is most always full of ducks. Floating down it is usually a great way to bag your limit fairly quickly. I never really liked the idea myself, for obvious reason....The boys made it out okay but not before the rescue squad had been called out....
The trip through town was as you might expect. I met two vehicles. One was a city dump truck laying down salt and the other was a road grater attemting to clear the city streets.
My trip to the area we around here know as Shepp Bottoms was uneventful, but exciting none the less. The conditions made a slow go of it . My hands tightened around the steering wheel as I crossed the Hatchie Bottom levee and proceeded along to my destination. I remember thinking that my palms were abit sweaty even though the heater still hadn't warmed the car very much.
Luckily, I met no other vehicles on the road that morning. Keeping the somewhat heavy sedan straight on the icy road was not much of a problem. I guess that when you are an 18 year old enthusiastic hunter, the "what-ifs" never really cross your mind. The "normal" travel time to this location was no more than 15-20 minutes. That morning it took me well over an hour.
When I got to where I was going to hunt, the field was frozen and so I parked wherever I could get stopped. I made sure that I was in a place where I could get out easily. Well, at least "easily" in relative terms.
The walk across the field was very noisy due to the icy conditions. I had no idea why I thought that I would see any deer after I had made so much noise, but I did. I guess my 18 year old mind was still in full throttle.
I remember falling down twice or maybe more on the ice just getting to my stand, which by the way was three two-by-fours nailed across two oak limbs about ten feet off the ground....Did I tell ya'll that I was 18 years old at the time..haha?
Once I got situated on the icy seat, the sun began to come up. As soon as it did, the ice began to melt somewhat and the crackling sound that followed sounded more like firecrackers on the fourth of July. I remember thinking that I had better keep an eye out because I surely couldn't hear a deer even if it did walk by . The entire Bottoms were as loud as I had ever heard....and still today, I can't remember a more astonishing event.
Not long after the sun came up and began to warm things up abit, I heard what I thought was something walking across the ice. It was an uneducated guess, mind you, since the noise of the crackling ice was deafening. I just figured it had to be a deer because no other man would be out there in these conditions and no other animal would make that much noise, IMO. I turned one way and then the other way trying to pinpoint the sound. Finally, I caught a glimpse of movement to my right. A young spike came out walking very gingerly across the frozen field.
Now, at this time in my hunting career, a deer was a deer, especially on a day like today. The prettiest deer in the world was the first legal deer that you saw when the weather was like this. It took me less than a few seconds to get a bead on him and let the 30-06 bark. The young buck went down in his tracks.
As I made my way toward the deer I took my time. I had made it this far on a bad day. There was no reason to take any undue risks. After getting closer, I began looking for a bullet hole, where I remember aiming. I checked the shoulder and there was not one there. I proceeded to look down the deer's side to locate where I had hit the deer. I was wondering if maybe I had just scared the deer to death. Finally, after much effort, I found the entrance wound. It was located high in the hip within an inch or so of the spine......!!
I don't remember pulling off that much, but maybe I did. There is no other reason that I missed my mark by the entire length of the deer, more or less. I guess being right handed and shooting back across my body to my right made for a not so sturdy aim.
The deer was dead , none the less. I remember thinking that and laughing about what a terrible shot I had made. Little did I know that I would totally miss the biggest deer of my young career the following year with that very gun from that very stand. That would not be so funny....
It took quite some time to drag the deer across the ice. the deer slid quite well , but I didn't walk so well on the surface. I was not far from the car but as I walked, slid and walked some more, I remember thinking that the car must be sliding away from me because it didn't seem to be getting any closer.
As expected, I finally made it back to the car with the deer. What was not expected was a frozen trunk latch.
Now, at this time in my life, I lived with my mother. My parents had gotten divorced a couple of years before and my mom and I only had the two vehicles. One was the car that I was driving (her car)and the other was the car that my dad had given to me after the divorce. The car that my dad had given me, was alot worse of a car (aka a piece of crap)than my mom's and she didn't trust the car to get me around , so she drove the p.o.s. back and forth to work...
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Picture, if you will, an 18 year old boy sweating profusely from dragging a deer a few hundred yards across a frozen field. Back then, the hunting clothes of the day was goose down....yep, those big fluffy looking coats. The technology of moisture wicking was a thing of the future. Continue to imagine, if you can, a boy with frozen hands, a frozen face and ears, wet hair and somewhat of a wishful boyish attitude.
Now, at this time my warm smart good son mind was telling me that I can't put the deer in the back seat of the car . Even with a blanket, which I did have but it was IN THE TRUNK, putting a dead deer inside my mom's car would be a health risk, to say the least. However, my freezing cold eighteen year old, my mom will understand mind was telling me to do just that.
There comes a time in every man's (boy's) life that he must take the easy way out and hope for the best. Sadly though, this would not be one of those times.
There was a strong feeling in my mind that I could get the trunk open if I just tried the key ONE LAST TIME. getting it open would solve all my problems. What happened next just made everything WORSE. I won't bore you with details about how it sounded or felt as the key broke off in the lock and how stupid I felt by even trying it THAT ONE LAST TIME. I will say that I was glad that the ignition key was not the same as the trunk key or I may still be down there.
To make a much too long of a story abit shorter I'll just say that I did put the deer in the back seat, got it out and cleaned up before my mom was any more the wiser, and I never told her about the trunk key. My mom never drove that car again and a year later, we traded it off.
I often wondered if anyone every got the trunk open and what was still in there.
I can only imagine there being a few things in there like the "parking" blanket that went everywhere with me and a couple of eight track tapes that fell out of one of my cases that most times rode in the back seat until they were replaced by the blanket..haha......, maybe KISS ALIVE II or LED ZEPPELIN 4.....
A wise man once said...."Our minds are full of things we can't remember and times we won't forget"....I think that may have been HAYES CARLL.
BH
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#1717674 - 01/10/10 01:06 PM
Re: Speaking of cold weather........
[Re: Double-D-Team]
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Bone Collector
12 Point
Registered: 09/09/09
Posts: 6132
Loc: Murfreesboro, TN
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Cool story. You were a senior in High school in, your second deer season, and I wasn't even born. Haha
_________________________
Don't let the screen name fool you spikes are made of bone too  Semper Fidelis! The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson
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#1718713 - 01/10/10 08:42 PM
Re: Speaking of cold weather........
[Re: Yodel Dog]
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RKenney
10 Point
Registered: 03/15/08
Posts: 3633
Loc: Maury Co.
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Bottom Hunter,
How did we survive back in those days? Have you ever worn the
old white knit underwear with 2 pair of blue jeans, leather work
boots with no insulation, and flannel shirts?
I'm getting cold in my warm house just thinking about those days!
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#1719149 - 01/11/10 06:40 AM
Re: Speaking of cold weather........
[Re: RKenney]
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15499
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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Bottom Hunter,
How did we survive back in those days? Have you ever worn the
old white knit underwear with 2 pair of blue jeans, leather work
boots with no insulation, and flannel shirts?
I'm getting cold in my warm house just thinking about those days!
One thing I used to wear that I know longer do are the goose down underwear.....you know, the ones that you couldn't wear under anything other than maybe overalls....Maybe they weren't goose down, but they looked like it...
I remember when ONE BIG COAT was what I wore. Layering wasn't the "way of the day" back then. Not sure why.
I don't remember ladder stands either.......Most times I would build a stand in the tree....
I remember using cotton picker spindles driven into a tree used as steps to get to a wooden platform...? Maybe that was more of a "cotton county" thing....I've used many pallets as well....
safety harness??? I never even thought about them or remember them being used by anyone until much later. I do remember "taking home" a safety belt from work and using it while hunting...that was in the eighties....
Kids just starting out today have much more deer and a much easier time of it than we did back then....BUT.....I wouldn't trade it for anything...
BH
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#1719966 - 01/11/10 04:21 PM
Re: Speaking of cold weather........
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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Tim Johnson
6 Point
Registered: 07/17/09
Posts: 968
Loc: Gallatin, TN
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Awesome story
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story my friend, thanks for sharing... Ah the memories.
