Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer Camp Stories....

So my dad and uncle definitely liked to play jokes on me growing up. There was a decent sized persimmon tree on the hill below out camp. We would always stop on our way out and eat a few if there were any ripe ones. On 2 occasions about a year or two apart my uncle grabbed a nice hard green one and gave it to me. me being the young dump impressionable one I ate it and about threw up. The second time I asked my dad. "is it the green or the orange ones you want?" He replied "definitely the green ones, the orange ones are past ripe and spoiled" I ate one and about threw up again.

Another good story, one morning I was about 14 or 15 and I shot a nice doe and drug her back to camp. My uncle and dad got back to camp and were ready to take some hero shots. My dad sorta slipped off and I didn't really pay attention. My uncle takes the pictures and goes on about it. We get the pictures developed and lo' and behold my dad is about 40 yards behind me in the woods mooning the camera. These were the days when you shot a deer and packed the picture around all week to school after you got it developed to show it off. I cut my dad out of the picture and took it to school. A few years later I got the film redone and have the original picture again. We dont all get together and go camp and hunt anymore, but we still have a good time.

Our all time best deer camp story envolved my dad, and it happened before I was even born, but the legend lives on. Our guys always had a friendly rivalry with the guys in the camp next door. It was all over bragging rights for which camp would be first to get a deer hanging on the game poll on the first morning. Dad was hunting up above camp on the mountain, and shot a buck at about 7:30 the first morning. Just before he shot, he heard a shot from the next hollow over, and he knew who fired it-one of the guys from the camp next door. Dad did a quick gutting job and headed down the mountain, determined to get his buck up on the pole first. He looked off to his right and saw the guy from the camp next door, dragging hard, and headed for the game pole, and slightly ahead of Dad. Dad was determined to get there first at all costs, so he pointed the deer head first down the hill, sat on it's rib cage, lifted the head and rode it down the hill like a sled, somehow not hitting a single tree on the way down the hill. He had just tied off his rope on the game pole when the neighbor came chugging in with his deer. Ever after, the tale of Dad riding that buck down the hill has been legend around there. Guys still stop by camp and bring that story up to this day. Sadly, Dad, the rest of our orginal members, and the neighbors next door have all passed on, but we still hunt to honor their memories. Miss you Dad. We'll hunt together again soon.

To revive and old thread, I just got reminded of a prank my dad and his friends pulled on the new guy to the deer lease. I think there had been the usual amount of celebrating and the guys agreed to set all the clocks forward a couple of hours. They then wake up the new guy and drive him to a stand with talk of "you have to get up early to fool the big ones". They let him off at 3:00 AM and said they would check on him at 9:00. Poor guy staid on stand for six hours mostly in the dark, while the rest of the crew was back at camp for some grins and more sleep.

One summer we were cleaning around the camp and burning some trash in our fire pit which was a big culvert buried in the ground. We decided to clean out the shed and found an old can of PVC glue that we couldn’t get the lid off so we threw it in the fire pit. It didn’t take long and the can exploded and shot little flaming balls of napalm all over the yard. The three of us were running around laughing our asses off and trying to stomp out little fires everywhere. Yes there was a lot of alcohol involved.

I have a short one. Sitting around the table my soon to be brother in law was asking questions. He never hunted anything before and tomorrow Monday was opening day for deer. We were hunting in Maine so seeing a beer was possible and also legal game. Ray asked my dad, “Mr S what do I do if I’m charged by a bear?” My dad chuckled and said “Thats easy, reach down grab a handful of mud, throw it in the bears eyes and shoot him when he wipes the mud off.” Ray says back “how will I know there is mud?” Dad says “Raymond if a beer is charging you I guarantee you will have mud under your feet.”