Ray and Mathew Pigott - Father and Son Deer

Saturday morning 10/2/2010: Matthew and Dad climb in a box stand looking over a bean field at 5:15am. Matthew helped build the stand over the summer, his first real construction project. He learned about many tools used by carpenters. He interacted with other men who were more interested in him having success than their own. We were excited about sitting together in the deer woods. Matthew just turned 15 and has never shot a deer.

He spent time getting his hunter certification, range card at the Wake Co. range, and practicing at the range. He has proven to be an excellent marksman although a little skeptical about the black powder gun in hand. The gun makes a lot of smoke and is a little cranky grouping unless close attention is paid to loading it. We sit patiently. At 8:15, while Matthew is fighting off boredom, a deer appears crossing the bean field. I see it first and tell him to get ready. Like an old pro, he steadies the gun, takes aim and asks for the go ahead. I say go, look through the binoculars and wait for the boom. Just before the deer exits into the woods, the .50 caliber sounds off. I see the deer jump straight up confirming a hit. He thinks he missed. We give him 30 minutes and climb down. Less than 10 yards into the woods, we find his first deer. A great shot was placed behind the shoulder. We thank the Lord together for a blessed day.

We plan to hunt again in the afternoon and agree to take a stand in a double ladder for the afternoon. On the way, he asks if we can return to the box. Since it is comfortable, why not? We climb in a 4:00pm and wait patiently. Matthew can’t fight the boredom and drifts off to sleep while I keep watch. At 6:30 pm, three does come out in the edge of the woods. Could Matthew have a chance at number two? The real crazy thing here is that we both harvest a deer out of the group. It was exciting to say the least. What a great opportunity the Lord provided for father and son. We both can’t wait for the next trip. He has the fire ignited inside. We will again ask Him for the opportunity to enjoy His great creation together. With the pressure off, we will search for Matthew a buck.

Austin's Deer Story, With A Prayer

I met Austin for the first time at this week's Colonial Outdoors meeting. It is always a pleasant surprise to have some young blood in our group, not unlike the tradition of passing on the love of the outdoors to the youth.

I deal with many in their teens and 20's (the age of my kids) and to know there are good folks like this is refreshing.

Here's is the story of his deer:

As far as the buck I shot Saturday evening goes, it was kind of a spur of the moment spot to hunt. It was 4pm and I was taking my climber back into an area I had only hunted once this year. The area is semi swamp land that that has a lot of stagnant bog ponds and low areas that hold water and a lot of reeds.

On the way to this area you have to go through a thick holly patch that has a lot of oaks throughout it. The area has always provided a good travel route for bucks, but is hard to hunt from up in a tree due to the fact that usually you only will have one or two clear 10-15 yard shot and you can't see very far. Well, as I was walking through I come across two fresh scrapes that looked like they had been worked that morning. As soon as I saw them I began looking for a tree near them I could climb, but there wasn't any good ones near them except for one and it would be putting me in a position for my scent to be blowing right across the scape's. Frustrated, I decided to just sit on the ground and see what happened.

Now I said before that you couldn't shoot more than 10 or 15 yards from up in a tree in this area but on the ground it is a different story. There are several shots up to 50 or 60 yards plus you can see for 100 yards in almost 360 degrees. I knew that I would at least have a good chance of seeing some deer by deer by doing this. I found an old tree that had blown down during hurricane Fran and got positioned with the root ball on my back and the trunk to my side. I could only hope this would break me up enough so I wasn't spotted.

For the next couple of hours I did some grunts and bleats and just scanned the area with my binoculars hoping I would arouse a buck. Around 5:55pm I was scanning the woods and I heard a squirrel about 20 or 30 yards away freak out. I figured it had either seen me move ,or him and another squirrel were going at it. I didn't think much of it at the moment because squirrels fussing is a constant thing, and I had heeded their false warning countless times already that afternoon. As I began to sweep the woods back towards the noise of the squirrel I caught a glimpse of a body 30 yards in front of me down wind. I've been wanting to see just how good my scent control and scentlock are and I guess that was a good sign of them working pretty well. Needless to say I was caught of guard at the moment because the deer had just seemed to appear. Apparently the squirrel had been upset for a good reason and I should have been paying closer attention. I saw instantly that the deer had a descent rack and had to scramble to get into shooting position. Fortunately the deer was behind a lot of trees and I had enough time and cover to get ready. I raised up my muzzle loader and found a hole he was about to walk into but I wasn't able to get situated in time. He was quartering towards me by this time and was about to walk into a second hole that would barely provide a clear 21 yard shot. As soon as he stepped in I made a bleat with my mouth and he froze. At 6pm I placed my cross hairs on his front shoulder and squeezed off the shot and placed a 245 g. hollow point in his boiler room. He took off tail tucked and I knew he wouldn't be going far. He ran about 50 or 60 yards, and I don't even know how he made it that far with the amount of blood that he was loosing.

Any time I go hunting it's like a prayer meeting in the woods. Either you're praying just to see a deer, praying the deer comes close or praying that you find him after you shoot him. This buck was one of just being thankful because how short of a distance he ran. That's not always the case though. The first buck I shot this year I gut shot him and his guts closed up his wound so I had no blood. The only reason I had a clue where he was I saw his eyes shining at me when I was looking for blood and I backed out. I went home and just sat for 2 or 3 hours and I could not even eat. I prayed, prayed, and prayed a little more. A lot of times people say they got lucky shooting or finding that deer and I'm guilty of that too. Really luck had nothing to do with it, prayer and the Lord allowing you to find or take that deer is what the real truth is.

The first thing I do when I get in the stand is have a word of prayer because no matter how much time or planning I put into a hunt (or how little) I know the real truth is God can bring a deer from anywhere by me. A lot of times though I think He decides to teach me patients because I sometimes go for days without even seeing a deer. No matter what kind of hunt I have though, even if it's just looking across a field, being out in nature and just enjoying its beauty is just a blessing. I guess I could say I've never met an atheist hunter that I know of. This year of hunting has been my most blessed year. I was able to take my first deer, a doe, with my bow and I have been able to shoot three 8 pointers with my muzzle loader. This will definitely be a year that will stick in my mind.

October Calendar - Deer Season

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Chris Crum, On Thanking the Lord and Obeying the Rules - And a Bear

As hunters we have an obligation to do the right thing while hunting. I wish I could say that I have never broken a single rule while hunting. I remember one time when I was younger my dad and I went turkey hunting. Our neighbors stopped to chat as we were walking down the road and asked what we were doing. When we said turkey hunting they looked kind of shocked and said not to tell anyone. I thought it was strange. We never came close to getting one, but I had to reread the regulations when I returned because my neighbors’ words still puzzled me. I found that while it was turkey season, it wasn’t in the county that I lived.

I remember when hunting regulations were one page folded into a pamphlet. Now we have a small paper back book to read. Although it makes it more difficult to know every rule, ignorance doesn’t excuse us from not following them.

1 Peter 2:13-15 states: Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

So what does this have to do with my bear hunt? Well, I really enjoy bear hunting. Bears are fascinating creatures to me. In the two states that I do most of my hunting baiting is illegal, making it difficult to harvest a bear without the use of dogs. I don’t own any hunting dogs and I don’t know anyone that does that will take me. So this leaves me with the option of going to bear country and hoping that I cross paths with one. This is not an extremely successful strategy. I have hunted bear for the past 6 years without getting one. During this hunt I was not having any luck finding any bear sign until I happened to come across a big pile of moldy, soggy doughnuts and saw bear prints in it. While I didn’t place any of the treats there, it still didn’t seem right hunting in the vicinity of it and I had to relocate. There was another dirt road/trail about a mile away and it had plenty of bear sign and not too much human sign (a perfect place). The first evening resulted in zero bears but my friend saw two. On the second evening I was able to harvest this bear. As we road off in the darkness with the bear on the four wheeler, my friend said, “Doesn’t it feel good to do things right?” Yes, it does. The bear won’t make any records, but he is a trophy to me and I don’t have to be shamed by the presence of his hide or the memory of his harvest.

Thank You Lord for providing an abundance of game. Thank You for the opportunity to spend time with friends in the outdoors enjoying the pursuit of it. Thank You for the harvest You blessed me with. Above all, thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross so that all may have the free gift of eternal life. Please give me and every Christian sportsman the strength to obey the rules no matter what our personal opinion on the matter is. Help our hearts to line up with Your will for our lives. Amen

October Calendar - Deer Season

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