Headlighting Deer

Heaven's 11 had a tradition of holding and "outfit function" (beer bust) once in the fall and again in the spring. If you haven't read the story about our Christmas-time function at the Shiloh Hall, it would be very helpful to understand the context of this story.

The fall function was generally held on a weekend evening soon after Thanksgiving. This provided an opportunity for some of our outfit members to bring back deer they killed during their Thanksgiving trip home. I don't know whether it was a preference for venison or a preference for not having to pay for the meat (and I suspect it was the latter).

Well, it was our pisshead year and we were in trouble - no one had brought back any deer and the function was only a couple of days away. There were few options so one probably stood out. That's how I found myself with a group of pissheads and sergebutts that night in Bo Albritton's pickup truck.

Bo was our outfit first sergeant. He was a really straight arrow and even today I wonder what made him decide to participate. But he was the driver because he had the pickup truck with a cover on back. Vernon Carr was in the front seat with the 30-30 (rifle). I don't remember who else was along but the rest of us were in the back of the pickup.

It was about 11:00 PM and we were driving the back roads south of college station looking for deer. We saw several but never could get close enough to them. Finally, after about a half-hour of driving, we came upon a group of three or four that were grazing alongside the road and were caught in the glare of the headlights.

Vernon jumped from the truck and took aim. Suddenly, he squeezed off a shot - BOOM - and nothing. I'm sure Vernon was ordinarily a very good shot but that night he couldn't hit the broad side of a bar. The deer were no more than 20 - 25 yards away, normally an easy shot. However, it was nighttime and the adrenaline was pumping.

So he squeezed off another shot - BOOM - and still nothing. We began to razz him a bit so he took his time and squeezed off his third shot. Finally, he brought one down. Seeing as how it's illegal as hell, I've never been involved in something similar since so I don't have a clue about deer psychology. You're probably wondering, as I did, why the deer didn't simply run a way after the first shot… but they didn't.

Immediately after the deer fell, silence returned for all of about five or six seconds. That's when we saw the headlights and heard a car go by less than a hundred yards away. We were only a short was from the intersection with Highway 6, the major north-south highway through College Station. It scared the bejeebers out of us all.

So, we scrambled out of the back of the truck and tossed the carcass in the back with us. Then we drove around to find an out of the way location to hoist up the deer carcass and dress it. That job was probably never completed anywhere as quickly as we managed in the dark that night.

Job completed, we returned to campus. Now the question was "what to do with the carcass until the party?" The answer was to hang it in the shower from one of the showerheads and open the windows to keep the room cool.

Can you imagine the shock of those the next morning that awakened to find a deer carcass in the shower and the crapper freezing cold?

Tom (TE) Schoolcraft