If I were to offer one piece of advice that I thought was more important than any other, I would tell you not to assume that a shot was missed – even If the target ran off and appeared to be unharmed. In my reasonably long life as a hunter, I’ve had reminders of this along the way.

Though I began my deer hunting in the latter sixties and took a few does and young bucks early on, my first mature whitetail buck came in November of 1972. I was carrying a Springfield 03A3 that I had restocked. Menno’s Bob Winter, the renowned builder of custom rifles, had done the bolt work and tapped and drilled it for scope mounts. I way underestimated what that 30-06 rifle could do.

I was lying prone on a knob overlooking the Grand River when I spied a sizable buck and six does just above a finger draw that eventually emptied into the Grand. They were about 300 yards out. I put my scope’s crosshairs high on the buck’s shoulder and touched off a shot. The buck leaped into the draw where I foolishly assumed it ran for cover undetected. I never checked where the deer had been standing and remained at my post.

A half hour later four hunters including Merle Lofgren of Lemmon came down that same finger draw. Now assuming that no deer were in the immediate area, I slid down from the knob and greeted the approaching hunters. After handshakes and an exchange of names, Merle told me about a beautiful, freshly killed buck lying in the draw. I told them that I had fired at a buck at that location and then hustled over to check it out. My bullet had gone through its heart, and its leap was his last. I learned something else. I had wondered why the six does hung in the area after I fired. They were probably saying in deer talk, “Fred, get up! What’s the matter?”

Back in the mid-eighties I was hunting the river bottom south of Wagner on property that belonged to George Smith. I fired at a good whitetail buck that ran on, flag waving in the air, like he’d never been hit and ran into the timber. I’d recently seen a movie on an outdoor show that claimed that a mortally wounded deer will always run with its tail down, and I assumed that to be true. I foolishly didn’t check. I was halfway home that evening when I thought to myself that I couldn’t have missed that shot. I turned around, returned to the scene, and found my buck lying just inside the timber.

It was back in the latter 80’s when I was fall hunting turkeys in Gregory County. I was on the late Don Beauchamp’s property north of Herrick. There was snow on the ground, and I was quartering with shotgun in hand toward a flock of turkeys when I came upon deer tracks and a blood trail. I followed the trails to a nearby wooded draw and found a beautiful five by five point whitetail buck just inside the draw. Apparently someone had fired at the buck from the road and presumed that they had missed. Other than illegally firing from the road, they probably would have been trespassing.

Years ago my father foolishly fired an extremely long shot at a turkey flock. He claimed and believed that he had missed. When I began the twenty minute trek to cross the draw, he told me that I was wasting my time. I found his very dead gobbler beneath the ridge line. A high-powered rifle is an amazingly accurate tool. Never underestimate its effectiveness.

I recently heard on the news that the term “Asian carp” was a racial slur. Is “Chinese ringneck pheasant” a racial slur? What about “Hungarian partridge”? One of our wild ducks, formerly known as an “Old Squaw,” is now a “Long Tail.” North Dakota University, not to mention the Sioux people, were proud to be called “The Fighting Sioux.” Washington was proud of its Redskins. Our 1st Amendment Freedom of Speech is under attack by extremist liberals, and I fear the direction we appear to be heading. My parents taught me the adage, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” It was good advice. Call me a “dirty kraut” or “white trash.” I could care less.

These racial slur people appear to be ultra-sensitive when these so-called slurs are directed toward minorities. I’ve never uttered a slur, and I don’t intend to, but I have to wonder what has happened to our First Amendment rights.

See you next week.