2010 Season - The Camry Doe

The 2010 hunting season for the Graham household didn't have much action, mainly because we only went a few times. We were in the home stretch of our Dave Ramsey plan to pay off $60k worth of debt in 24 months and I wasn't spending money on anything. I asked Mr. Giles if the kids and I could come out and take another doe and he agreed, so Walker and I went out one cool November 20th afternoon to sit in the shooting house.

Not too long after we arrived a doe came walking out on the edge of the field and after watching it for a few minutes, Walker decided we should take it. I made a good shot and the deer ran about 50 yards into the woods. It was getting dark quickly so we gave it as long as we could stand it to wait and then started tracking. It didn't take Walker long to follow the blood trail to the deer.

We decided not to field dress the deer at that time, and we took a photo.

11.20.10

And that is where the story gets really funny. Earlier that year I had sold my truck and bought a 1996 Toyota Camry. After knowing I would need a way to haul the deer home I made a few phone calls and unfortunately there was nobody available. I told Walker that I guess we had no other choice than to put the doe in the trunk of the car and haul it out of the woods. So we walked up to the car and drove the car down the dirt road to the field, dragging the bottom nearly the entire way. I had a heck of a time getting it into the trunk by myself, but I finally got it, and I couldn't help but laugh at what we were doing.


It didn't take long after leaving the woods that we realized how bad the smell was. We laughed for about 5 minutes about the whole situation. Another funny part was we stopped at a bodyshop on Hamilton Road and I told Walker to stay put. At this point it was about 9:00 and in full camo I walked up to a group of about ten guys who were looking at me like I was crazy. I asked them if they knew of anyone that might be interested in some deer meat and they all said no. So I made another phone call and figured out a family of a student I had been tutoring was interested in the deer and asked me to bring it right over. I pulled into the trailer park and they pulled the deer out of the trunk and up onto the front porch. The grandfather came out of the trailer with a huge knife and I told him we had to get home. I didn't want to see how messy that was going to get on the front porch of their trailer.

It was one heck of an experience, but we both had a great time and neither of us will probably ever forget it!