Reflections & Ramblings of a Deer Hunter

By David Eubanks

The last day of my 2010 deer hunting season in SC. I’m perched in a deer stand 25 feet above the ground wondering why I choose to spend my time outside in 40 degree weather when everyone else is snuggled up inside, watching football, reading a book, shopping, or whatever they enjoy doing “inside” in December. I hadn’t even seen a squirrel move all afternoon, and I was thinking that even the squirrels must be smarter than me; at least they had sense enough to get out of the cold and inside their favorite tree.

Then something seemingly insignificant happened; it started raining, and then raining harder and harder, and I was certain that I must really be “insane” or just plain “stupid” to be sitting in an oak tree with a cold breeze blowing and a cold rain beginning to soak thru.

I was at the point where I was beginning to convince myself that I was in fact “insane” and that it was time to pack it up on this last day of the 2010 deer season. But for some reason at that moment my mind drifted back to many, many years ago, when I was really just a kid, and had just recently begun hunting deer. I thought back to a hunt near Hwy 176, just past the South Hills in Union, sitting on the ground on a tiny fold-out stool and waiting for what I dreamed would be a huge Whitetail Buck to come by. Instead, what came that day was snow and more snow; Read more