Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

My very first year deer hunting was almost my last in more ways than one. My future BIL took me out to a pasture he had permission on with river and woods running through it and we set stands a month before season.

Opening morning came and we walked in well before daylight. We came across a make shift camp that had about 8 - 10 guys sitting around a campfire passing a bottle of whiskey around.

They bragged that they had been up all night and they already had two fawns hanging from a tree that they poached. After some slurred and obnoxious conversation from them and them asking us for our doe tags so they could tag their illegal fawns, we found out they were from the city closest to us.

My BIL and I knew this was trouble so we made our way to our stands. He made sure I got up in mine ok and then went to his. Just as the sky started turning gray, a fawn came running down the path directly at me and went under my stand. Then the shooting started. I heard 3 slugs wizz past me and then THWACK! The fourth hit the tree about 8 inches above my head.

I don't even remember jumping but I jumped 10 feet down to the ground and hit the dirt and started yelling. My BIL came over to see what was wrong and I showed him where the slug hit. We couldn't find the guy doing the shooting but we found one of his drunken partners gutting that fawn after it ran to him. My BIL told the guy that if we find his buddy he is going to get the butt of his gun in his teeth. I just said "lets go".

We never hunted there again and I almost gave up deer hunting after that. And to this day, I think its a big reason why I prefer bowhunting.