re: Killed an Illegal Buck Today, Didn't Tag

Let me share a 1970's dog hunting story. One of my dad's coworkers invited us to hunt with his crew. I'd never been dog hunting before, and had begun to think it was one of those activities like frog gigging, where drinking beer was all that happened. My dad and I weren't drinking, but the crew we were with were having a crazy morning of letting dogs loose, and then driving around trying to figure out which way they were headed, then catching them, and driving somewhere else to run them, while drinking can after can of Budweiser.

At one point, the dogs were actually running after a something in some woods. We drove to the other side of where they'd let the dogs loose in the woods, and were outside the truck listening for where they were headed.

We were talking about heading home when a big doe comes out of the woods and just stands there on the side of the road maybe 200 yards away. As we were about to drive closer and try to get to where we'd have a good shot, a guy in a station wagon pulls a high powered rifle out of the back, sights in his scope and let a big bullet loose. Hit right on her spine and partially paralyzed her. When we got to her, she was trying to get up while letting out a sound that sounded exactly like a woman screaming. The guy that shot her got behind her and slit her throat.

Shooting down the road like that was probably illegal back then, but nobody brought it up. Everyone just complimented the guy on the shot. This was in Mississippi, probably 1975, when my dad worked in the Woodlands division for International Paper. Back then you could get a permit from them and hunt their land. I never saw a game warden out there.