Back in the Pre-Digital picture taking days I loaded my film in a high end Nikon camera with a motor drive, a telephoto lens and sometimes a zoom lens. So when I heard about digital cameras I thought I could add up-to-date pictures regularly in my website comments and hunt reports on Bowhunting.net. That was in 1996 or ’97 and back then I could only find a couple of digital cameras and I bought an Agfa camera. Nikon had one too, but it was twice the price.
It was almost deer season so I hurriedly took pictures of a few wild hogs and a couple of deer, but, let’s get into the reason I gave that crummy Agfa camera away. Here we go.
That year I was keeping up with a very big racked 8-point a mile down the road I live on. I had thought I’d be able to get a picture of him with the Agfa. On my Aerial Map I could see where I had a treestand on the adjacent property — it was 400 yards straight South from where I was seeing the huge buck.
I named the stand area ‘The Hammer Hole’ and on opening day I was there. That first afternoon the sun was low and still visible above the treetops when the bomber 8-point walked smack out of the thick woods 30 yards from me. I didn’t know it yet but I was about to make two mistakes, very big ones.
Truthfully, I was eaten up with wanting to take a picture of this big buck with my new camera. I rested my bow between my legs and turned the camera on. Hmmm, those two things changed my mistake total to three.
The buck turned left onto a trail that led smack-dab to where I was. He was going to where I’ve been seeing him. I raised the camera up carefully and put the buck in the view finder. Immediately two things happened that jumped my goof-ups from three to five.
The camera was still new to me. And this afternoon I was learning things I could never forget. When the buck was in the view-finder I triggered the picture.
BEEP!!!!!!!!
That camera’s beep was very LOUD. The bomber was two steps from being back in the trees. And he took ’em. I froze, he had not seen me and had not spooked. He might walk back out. I slipped that Loud-Beeping Agfa in my jacket pocket and hooked up my release.
If Big-Boy came back out I absolutely would not touch the camera. But Big Boy stayed gone.
The next day I purchased a Nikon digital camera. During the next two weeks I saw a few bucks, but not ‘THE’ buck. And then my neighbor got him with his bow. He entered the rack in some Texas 8 Point Contest and it won the whole deal with a P&Y Score in the 160’s.
Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that buck. And, we should have a picture of a nice buck in this article. So that’s what the above picture of the two bucks is doing. This picture was taken in 2021. The furthest buck was the buck I was after in 2021. And just like Arnold, this year (2022) “I’ll be back.”
Wish me luck, friend.
