One reason not to sleep in the deer stand….
Every year a group of my old college buds get together for the rifle opener in MN. We all show up Friday afternoon at camp and usually spend the night catching up. This past year we decided to not go to sleep at all Friday night, that way we would be wide awake and out in the stands early enough to catch the deer still in the field at dawn.
During the day we set up stands out of straw bales on the various fields we hunted. The hay field, a 1000yard long, 400 yard wide field would usually support 2 stands, with another 2 in the woods to the north and south of the field. To try something new, we put a stand right on the wood line looking west, across the shorter length of the field. It was positioned so that there would be a shot straight out as well as to the north or south. We also figured that at dawn, it would offer an advantage, as the sun would come up behind us, giving us the best perspective to look out on the field, while also covering the hunter in the stand.
Well, as it turns out, being “wide awake” was negotiable… I bet I lasted a full 20 minutes in the stand before falling sound asleep. With the combination of the cold, lack of sleep and the plentiful beverages from the night before, I didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know how long I was asleep, but shortly after the sun poked out above the woods, i was jostled awake. It took a second to get my bearings, I realized I was in the bales with gun in hand. I sat up, and nearly fell back over. Looking at me wide eyed about 3 feet out from my bales is a large doe. I froze, forgot I had the gun in my hand. At the same moment, the tail goes up and the deer snorts. I was close enough to get the mist in the face…
Whats worse, the deer snorted and immediately ran to the side and into the woods, I didn’t even get the safety off on the gun. Not only did I catch hell back at camp for falling asleep and letting the deer wake me up, I didn’t even get a shot off when it was at barrel length away. Needless to say, I’ll be staying awake in the stand from here on out.
2 Comments
I hope your buddies never let you forget that one! That warm belly will put you down every time.
As a non-hunter, this actually strikes me as a fair (and more humane) outcome. I would see it as a much more brutal act to have killed the doe that came up to you and did you no harm as you slept. That to me seems like a moment of natural communion that should have gone unchallenged by a gun. Even though you didn’t miss your shot on purpose, I commend you nonetheless for sharing a story that may make you the butt of jokes among your friends, but which provides a less discouraging ending for those of us who camp and hike among these beautiful animals in a non-violent context.
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