The Hunt

So for some reason I got this notion to go hunting.  I was at my brother-in-law's house up in Maryland and he has a lot of property that can be hunted.  This is my kind of hunt.  It is within walking distance of the house, so if I decided I was completely bored I could just walk back.

So I dressed all in camo and set up in a tree stand starting at 5:30 in the morning.  And for those that were not going to believe me, I even took a picture of myself:

So I am sitting up there for 2 hours when I suddenly turn to my left and see this buck:

Okay, so it wasn't that buck.  It definitely wasn't that big, but this is my story so deal with it.  So I turn and see this buck about 50 yards away...what the heck if its my story I might as well say 100 yards away.  Anyway, I raised the gun (shotgun, by the way, and that ends up being an important part of the story) and look through the scope (scope on a shot gun?  A lot of people have asked me this and I don't have and answer)  and fired.

Guess what I didn't do?  Yes the safety was off, yes the gun was loaded, no I did not have a good enough grip on the gun to control the recoil.  So the gun kicked back and the scope nailed me just above my eye:

It obviously shocked the crap out of me and wouldn't you know that I missed the deer.  But the deer didn't run, it actually walked closer to me.  So I reaimed, controlled the gun much better and looked through the scope much further away.  I shot again and knocked the deer on its back.  The deer even let out a cry.  Then it just lied motionless on its back.  So I unloaded the remaining ammo out of the gun, unstrapped myself from the tree stand and climbed down.

As I was climbing down, I saw what I thought was another buck running into the woods.  Much to my surprise, when I got to the area where I shot the deer, it was gone.  No problem, I'll just follow the blood trail.  Unfortunately the only blood trail led back to the tree stand.  I looked for that deer for the next hour or more and never found even a sign of a deer that had just been shot.  There are some theories here:

1. I happen to shoot a deer with 9 lives.
2. I hit the deer in a location that stunned it, didn't bleed much and it was able to get up
3. Probably the most likely theory, the deer actually fell over from laughter.  The noise it made was not a cry but a laugh:

Now imaging having to go to work at the fire station with a very noticeable cut above your eye and have to explain to a bunch of firefighters (whom most of them are avid hunters) that you can't control a shotgun.

Good times.