2004 Archery season in Pennsylvania, the last week, rut was in full swing...
i woke up around 330 in the morning, took a scent shower and got layered up in long johns. i was pumped because it was the first snowfall of the season and i didnt have class until noon or so. i was hunting a home-made stand on my buddy's property and told him all i needed was one hunt out of it and i'd kill a nice buck. he of course thought i was full of it... anywho, i locked my apt door behind me, clothes bag, bow case and boots in hand. as soon i shut the door, i realized i locked my keys in the apt. i ran the stuff down to my truck and back up to the apt. my roomate (the owner of the property) had already left to sit his stand. i tried to jimmy open the apt door and ended up breaking 3 plastic cards (including one debit card). ended up kicking in the apt door, with wood splinters flying everywhere (which i had to replace later), grabbed my keys and took off. i did about 80 mph down a dirt road where maybe 45 mph is safe. made it to the farm with maybe 20 minutes before sun-up. turns out i parked at the wrong spot and got turned around in the swamp heading to this stand. sunk in the muck up to my knees, and finally made it to stand just as sky was starting to lighten up. at this point it's just been a wreck so far, and i figure id be lucky to see a deer. to make things worse, i had a severe case of bronchitis and was coughing like a mad man. luckily the stand was close to a road so i would try to hold it in until a car went by or would hide it by calling with a doe bleat while coughing. somehow it worked and i ended up calling in a 10 pt. after making a solid 20 yard shot and watching the buck drop, i drug him to my truck and headed back to town.
oops... ran out of gas about 4 miles outside of town. i had to buy one gallon from a farmer for 10 bucks just to get back to town. not to mention while my buck was hanging to be caped out, it fell from the pole and landed on top of my head. didnt really feel the greatest but the rack wasnt damaged so i didnt care. and to put the icing on the cake, i didnt have time to clean up before class, so i went still wearing snow camo pants and blood up to my elbows. needless to say i got some strange looks