On Oct. 15, 1997, the opening day of archery deer  season I was up at 3:00 AM. I showered and dressed and had gotten about 15 miles from my house when I became so sick I had to turn around and head for home. Spent the rest of that day in bed. Up again at 3:00 AM on the second day of season but still felt so bad I went back to bed without ever leaving home. On Friday, the third day of bow season I finally made it to the woods. I climbed into my Amacker ladder stand under the star light and awaited by first day of hunting for the new season. At about 7:00 I saw 6 turkeys come running off the hill in front of me. They passed by my other stand about 80 yards away from this one and went into the apple orchard. I saw lots of squirrels but no deer on this day and left at 11:30 as this is traditionally a morning only stand area.

So it was on Tuesday the 21st of October with  the archery season  but six days old when I made my second bow hunt of the new season. Little did I know what lay in store of me before this day would end. Again I was up at 3:00 AM and arrived at the orchard at 5:30. I parked my Bronco at one end and walked the 250 yards to the far end in the dark without a flashlight. Today I choose to climb into my permanent stand about 80 yards away from the Amacker ladder stand I hunted earlier. On my way in I spooked a deer that was feeding on the sweet acorns falling from the chestnut oaks around my stand.

At 7:30 I saw a deer cross the opening where my trail to this stand intersects with the orchard. I grunted to it but to no avail. It walked on down the orchard away from me. A few minutes later I heard a deer walking in the leaves behind my stand and on my left but was unable to see it in the thick brush. At least the deer are out and moving about.  At about 10:00 a buck that looked to be 2-1/2 years old with a fair rack of maybe 5 or 6 points was seen slowly making his way toward me from my right front. He had come up out of the hollow and was moving up the hill behind me. I drew my bow and waited for a shot. I noted the distance to a tree nearby him as 30 yards from previous knowledge of the stand and set that distance in my mind as I was sure he was walking parallel to my position. When he cleared some brush between us and stopped I released and saw the arrow sail over his back by no more than 2"-3". I had failed to notice that he had altered his course a little and was coming closer as he moved through the brush. When I released he was at no more than 20 yards and I had used the wrong pin. He ran off unharmed.

I sat down rather dejectedly and considered going home. After all I had spooked a deer coming into the stand that morning, saw another in front of my stand that wouldn't come to my grunt call, heard another behind me and now missed a buck. How many deer can I expect to come by here in one morning? I didn't leave however. As I sat there feeling bad about missing the shot and doubting myself I heard still another deer coming from behind me on my left side. I slowly turned to see a doe making her way along in the brush. I stood and pulled back my string to prepare for the shot. I released when she stopped in a small clearing and the arrow found her spine-I had almost overshot another one. I put a second arrow into her as she lay there kicking on the ground to put a quick end to her life. After field dressing her and loading her onto my Bronco  I considered taking the deer to my brothers house as he had been on my case to bring him a deer as soon as season started but decided not to. She was a young and tender doe and would be real good eating so I decided to take it home for my freezer instead of my brother's.

I made a decision to let my friend Chris take this deer to a friend of his who does an outstanding job of aging and packaging it instead of doing it myself. The day was rather warm and Chris wouldn't be home for several more hours so I decided to cut her in half and put her in a large cooler I keep in my attic over the garage. I climbed up the ladder to get the cooler while Faye took the skin and legs and head to the back of my shooting range to throw them away.

Somehow I stepped off the ladder backwards from a height of about four feet. I turned 180 degrees while still in the air. My left hip hit a box fan sitting by my reloading benches, my left knee struck the concrete floor of the garage hard and my head hit the corner of the arm of my reloading chair and broke the wooden chair's legs from under it.  I think the chair partially cushion the blow to my head. I fell to the floor in a lot of pain. I knew I was hurt and bad but wasn't sure how bad! I called for Faye but she was too far away to hear me. My youngest son Phil heard me and came out to check on me. I had my head resting on my shirt sleeve to stop the bleeding, and removed it so he could see my forehead. I asked him how bad it looked and he said , "it looks pretty bad". I sent him to get me a towel and then to get his mother. Faye got our next door neighbor and they rushed me to the hospital to get me put back together.

My head required only four stitches to sew up and healed quickly and actually quit hurting within a few days. My hip was badly bruised but healed in a couple of weeks. But my knee is still not completely healed as I write this on the night of February 17, 1998. I am not sure if it will ever be 100 % again. But I think the lord Jesus that it came out as well as it did.  If my head had hit one of the loading bench corners or the stem on the top of my lubricator/sizer or if the chair had hit two inches lower in my eye, I could have easily have been killed or blind in one eye or if my head had hit the concrete as hard as my knee---well you get the picture---it could have been much worse. As it is, I am all right except for the still tender knee and am still hunting regularly.