The Sportsman's Corner

Five years ago, my friend Brady killed a buck that ran down the wrong side of the mountain after being hit with a shot that should have dropped him in his tracks. It took the two of us more than six hours to get the eight-point back to Brady's truck. After that strenuous effort, I told him I didn't think we should hunt deer there any longer. I was then 65; he, slightly younger. "We'd be risking our health if we keep hunting there," I told him.

For the next few years, we hunted various other places, finally settling on some land he had bought. During those years, no one who hunted there killed a buck, though a big one got past me one morning that everyone I had ever hunted deer with would have downed.

We knew deer were around. We encountered buck rubs and scrape lines. But, a place where Brady sat was surrounded one season. Finally, he decided to put up some elevated, permanent deer stands for himself and for three others who hunt there. I'm one of the three. He called himself the "Brady Construction Company."

Brady spent last summer setting posts, framing and roofing the stands, and then enclosing them. Although he got some help from two of the hunters he was building stands for, I stayed away. Now, before you think that I was just dodging work, you need to know that I am undeniably the Cove's worst craftsman. Bruce Houck, my brother-in-law, once told my brother that I didn't need any tools because I wouldn't know how to use them anyway. So, if I had tried to help Brady with just the stand he built for me, it would have taken him twice as long to construct it.

By fall, the Brady Construction Company had assembled four stands. When I saw mine, I was impressed that it appeared to be a rough "Taj Mahal" in the woods. There was enough room to put in a desk chair with rollers on the bottom that "Blackbart" had found and placed in the stand for me. If I didn't see any deer, I was at least going to be comfortable.

After my son, Bob, saw the stand, he bought me a portable space heater for it so that I would not whine about becoming cold, which I have done for years.

On the opening day of rifle season, two of the stands produced nice bucks, one for Brady's nephew and, deservedly, one for Brady. And, I stayed warm and comfortable.