I have a couple of more true stories to pass on.
One dear hunt when I was still quite young, I was up in a small tree stand just waiting for a deer to pass by, and it started to lightly rain. It was a cold light rain with some wet hale smaller than bb's. The rain and wet hale was freezing on everything. I just sat there for a few hours thinking about the keys my dad had given me to his station wagon so I could open it and even start the engine for heat if I had to. Well after a couple of hour even with the thick layers of warm clothes, winter hat, and the hunting mittens that kept all four fingers in the same pocket so there would be less heat loss, I had just about had enough because I was getting pretty darn cold. I looked down at my gun (a 30-06 Remington 760 gamemaster) and there is a quarter inch of ice all over the gun including the area where the shell ejects. I think to myself I bet there is a good chance this gun would not even work if a deer came by and I had to use it. So I pump the gun to see if it will eject a shell and the shell comes out of the barrel and gets stuck against the ice before it can clear the ejection area. I think to myself, that is a good enough excuse for me, I'm going back to the car to get warm. When I got back to the car my uncle is already in the car with the engine running and the heater turned on full blast. I sit in the car for a while and then hear a twang as the shell sprung from the ejection area of my gun when the ice finally melted. They say that brandy is a false warmth, but I still remember how the first shot of brandy I ever had, that my uncle gave me from his hip flask that day, burned and warmed me from the inside while I was still trying to get warm from the cold ice rain. Soon after that my dad and brother showed up and decided it was too cold with the wet freezing rain and we called it a day.
Sometimes the journey is the destination (the experiences you get to see can be something to remember even if you do not get a deer).
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And now for another true story not so cheerful but necessary to give you a true perspective on the responsibility that comes along with carrying a gun on a hunt.
I come from a very large family with very many cousins. One of them a few years older than I, went deer hunting with one of his friends.
Two deer came by while the two of them were in the woods together. They decide to take both deer and start shooting them. My cousins friend took a kneeling position and my cousin fired from a standing position. They both fired several rounds, and the friend emptied his gun first. He stood up after he emptied his gun. Unfortunately just as my cousin squeezed off the last round from his gun, and in front of my cousins gun. My cousin thinking he was shooting at one of the deer, ended up blowing his friends head off. He was found guilty of accidental man-slaughter. He sold that gun because he could not look at it without thinking about his lost friend.
For many years after that, even though none of the people I hunt with hunted with them, that accident carried a heavy reminder of how serious gun safety is when hunting. I treat every gun as if it were having a bullet leaving the barrel all the time. And I will not even allow anyone to transport a gun in a vehicle where it might end up pointing at someone.
