'Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story'-Mongo Summer of 2002

I felt the need to inform the reader of Mongo's propensity for embellishment when telling a story before I wrote my version (which happens to be the truth) of 'Tard Has His Day'. Mongo is a fantastic storyteller and delights Tard with his entertaining stories whenever we have one of our adventures, but sometimes the stories about Tard get crazy.

So I will tell you the real story and correct a few of Mongo's shall we say crazy talk. Anyhow now for the true story of 'Tard Has His Day'………. It was a warm Halloween morning during the 2001-2002 Illinois deer season, around 59 degrees at 5:00 a.m. and the forecast called for a high that day of 75 or so. I was not at all optimistic about our chances at getting a deer that morning, everything was the complete opposite of good deer hunting conditions. But nonetheless I met Mongo at his house for a quick early morning hunt. I bitched and complained about the conditions and Mongo agreed but we were hunting together and that was good enough reason to give it a try.

We made our way to our stands leaving a scent trail of PrimeTime doe pee. It was extremely damp that morning which made getting to our stands easy because the leaves were wet and didn't crunch under our feet. I climbed into my stand with 20 minutes till legal shooting time and got ready for the hunt. When legal shooting time arrived I was ready. My bow was in my hand with an arrow nocked and my release clipped to my loop, I was ready to kill. It was very warm, I was sweating and trying to ignore the mosquitoes when I started to curse Mongo under my breath…."We aren't going to see any deer….That Mongo is a lying $%#&@&#!!….There aren't any deer here….. I could be home sleeping but noooooo I'm hunting with a !%@&#*…….I'll give him a piece of my mind when I see him……I don't think he's ever seen a deer here……Wait there's one." And sure enough I was looking to the right and starting to look back to my left when less than 10 yards in front of me there stood a little doe (smack dab in the middle of the path Mongo had cut the year before). I decide to take her instantly but I'm going to have to wait for her to clear some bushes. I slowly stand and am starting to move into position when I see another deer right where the doe had been seconds earlier. I decide to take that one instead but as I move into position I realize it's a button buck, and there is no way I'm going to shoot that one. I have to hurry now if I want to have a chance at the doe I saw first. I again start to get ready for her when for some reason I look back from where they came from and I see a huge doe. I don't know if I heard her or if I just figured to check to see if there was another one coming.

The leaves were so wet I don't think that I could have heard the telltale crunch of a deer walking through leaves. But even with my good fortune there is a problem. I'm standing and I need to turn back to my left and sit down to take the shot. I miraculously make it to a sitting position. As she passed behind a tree not 10 yards away I effortlessly drew my bow and was on the kill zone when she stepped out. I thought I grunted to stop her but in retrospect I think it was more of a sheep sound. Anyhow she stopped and looked alert and I aimed really low (I only use one pin from a treestand setup) about at her knees and released. My arrow hit a small limb and kind of deflected a little and then 'WHACK' right in her shoulder. It was 15 minutes into legal shooting hours. I watched heartbroken as she ran away with my arrow bobbing up and down stuck in her shoulder. I watched her run down the path of least resistance and cut back towards a swamp\marsh and noted where I lost sight of her. I also heard what sounded like someone yelling something, but figured it was just someone yelling for their dog or something. I'm really cursing myself at this point figuring that I probably just wounded her or at the very best will have to wait a couple of hours and track her forever. As I contemplated throwing my bow at a squirrel that was laughing at me (they really do laugh at me those little tree rats…..*Shakes fist*) I heard a crash and then a really loud crash and then silence. This all happened within maybe 8-10 sec, from shot to crash.

My heart swelled with the hope that that was my deer going down, but I didn't want to get over confidant. I decided to have a smoke and wait 15 minutes or so and then go get Mongo.The joy and dread made me decide to climb down, but before I was even half way down I could see Mongo coming my way. I got down and grabbed my bow and held it above my head in hopeful victory. "Did you shoot?" Mongo exclaimed. "Yes. It was a doe. I don't think I hit her that well." I replied. "She ran almost right under my stand. That crash was her going down. That's a death crash! Deer don't make noise when they run through the woods!!! You got her!! You did it!!" Mongo proudly said. Mongo and Tard then celebrated and went over all the details of what had occurred.

There were lots of high fives, backslapping, grins, and even a hug or two. We went and got Mongo's Ford Explorer and drove down as close to the woods as possible to retrieve my first deer. I found my arrow right where she had turned back into the swamp\marsh. Six inches of it were gone and there was blood all over the shaft. Mongo and I set out to find the blood trail and started getting a little worried when all we were seeing were these light red smattering of blood here and there. But soon we came upon large patches of this light red blood and then even more blood spots. "There's your deer!!!!!!!" Mongo exclaimed while pointing into the middle of a blow down. Again more celebrating. The doe had maybe went 80 yards from where I shot her. Then we got wussified. Mongo noticed bubbles coming out of the does shoulder wound and tells me to go make sure she is dead. He cowers behind me and I move forward and thinking he may be right. I go into survival mode and suggest he checks and I'll be ready to shoot her again if need be. Needless to say Mongo didn't go for it and I sheepishly go and touch her eye with my arrow and verify she has indeed died. We dragged her out of the woods, which wouldn't have been possible for me alone. I'm very out of shape. Thanks Mongo.

We proceeded to field dress her and I played dumb and got Mongo to do most of the dirty work. It turned out that my bow has enough stank on it to penetrate the shoulder blade and pierced both lungs in the upper lobes. Also I retrieved my 125 gr. Thunderhead broadhead form my deer and the only deformity was the replaceable blades. The mystery of the light red blood spattering was solved when we determined that since part of my arrow was still in the shoulder no blood could flow out and give us the typical blood trail. What we were seeing was blood that had escapes from her nose and mouth as she tried to breath. We loaded her on the truck and went to the check station, and from there we dropped it off at a meat processor. It was a great day! The fact that I was able to share it with a great friend like Mongo made it even better.

Click on the photos for the full sized picture of Tard and his awesome doe!!