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

I don't know how to go about explaining the events of Sunday morning without the back story. So I guess I'll recap to be sure I am explaining this in a way that people can fully and correctly comprehend.

As you all know, Dusty was a staple in our camp. A senior member that provided an unexplainable level of joy and enthusiasm for the entire camp. As well as his sage wisdom being a life long woodsman, a father, grandfather etc.

We lost Dusty last spring to his battle with cancer. This was our first year at camp chickenbuck since it's beginning in 2007 that we didn't have our Dusty at deer camp.

Here's a few facts to help set the stage for my report on yesterday's events.

Dusty was cremated, the majority of his ashes were handled in a traditional fashion being placed at a grave site next to his son's grave back home. But the girls, Missy and Eileen felt strongly enough of Dusty's love of camp chickenbuck that they had a portion of his ashes placed in a separate urn which they brought up to deer camp. This small urn has been sitting on top of the gun rack at camp since the beginning of our season this year. We have been waiting for the right moment before spreading these ashes at the base of Dusty's deer stand. We felt it was important to have all of the kids in attendance, we really wanted our core group all there. This is actually a pretty tall order.

Now, a couple of other facts.

Missy has been a member of the camp since it's beginning and she's been hunting just as hard as the rest of us for many years. It's been tough hunting, it still is tough hunting, deer numbers are very low. She's never shot a deer up at camp chickenbuck before. She's taken deer before, but she's not taken one at chickenbuck. Dusty's stand, it's a nice spot, nice stand, but nobody (including Dusty) has ever taken a deer from that stand before.

Missy has been hunting from her dad's stand exclusively this year, putting in some good hours too.

Well there, I believe I have the stage set as best I can.

Sunday morning I hear Missy shuffling around inside the dark cabin, she's putting on all her warm clothes, including an old pair of her dad's wool bibs which she has been wearing this season.

Missy slips out of the cabin before sunrise with her 270 slung over her shoulder, as it turns out..... She will be the only hunter to venture out on this last morning of our rifle season.

Fast forward several hours, I've got pancake batter mixed, I'm cooking bacon and sausage, we're all there in the cabin wondering how long Missy is going to stay out in the stand.

10:20 am, "Boom!" from right behind the cabin. Wow!

I'm crossing my fingers and doing a little silent plea with god, hoping for a nice clean successful shot. Everybody is just amped up, excitement through the roof. The whole crew scrambles for coats and boots, some grab rifles, knives, pelvic saw, a drag strap... We begin our orange migration north through the woods. 10 of us in total. I asked Eileen before we left the cabin if it would be ok to bring that little urn up there with us. She figured that would be ok. I didn't have a plan and it was short notice for Missy but when we got up to where she had found her deer I gave her a big hug first off then I handed her that little urn and suggested we might want to take advantage of the moment we had there with all in attendance. It gave her a few moments to think about it anyways while Justin field dressed her doe.

Here's Missy with her first camp chickenbuck deer.



The sea of orange that surrounded the successful hunter:





Here's a first, field dressing with a live audience, lol.



Us boys pulled the deer over to the base of Dusty's stand for a "look what I did, dad" type of photo.





At this point Missy said some nice words about her dad and how much the whole deer camp and crew meant to him. I tossed in a couple words about how happy and honored I was that the girls thought enough of us all to do this, I explained how wonderful it would be to be able to walk part this old deer stand for all the years to come and know that Dusty is literally here with us all in all of our seasons to come. Missy spread her dad's ashes at the base of his old deer stand, next to her deer.. Her first at chickenbuck and also the first deer taken from the stand.

There were some leaky eyes, grandkids, my own kids, I think my eyes were a little glossy as well. It was a really cool moment, there's just no other way to explain it.

A person could live a lifetime of church on Sundays and not experience something as spiritually fulfilling as what we had at that moment. You couldn't have planned it, you couldn't ever duplicate it, it was just a natural moment that simply unfolded perfectly. It was an excellent way to close the 2013 rifle season.