That whole fiasco was some time ago. I was 20 when it happened. I'm 35 now. It's still a pretty vivid memory, because I just couldn't believe he did it. What I remember is that he was a total idiot. Really. He was off juuust a bit.
I didn't hunt with him much, because every time someone shot a deer, he insisted on cutting its throat with that big cheap bowie. My cousin's dad killed a really nice 8 point one time. He'd already decided to mount it. The deer was down, it was dead. They were admiring it, next thing you know, BOOB (not saying his real name) was on top of it cutting its throat so it would "bleed out and not ruin the meat!" He damn near cut its head off. The mount has a "beautiful" white line across its throat.
He did other stupid stuff too. One time, he saw a bolt on his tree stand and wondered what it did. So it took it out to see. While he was in the stand, in a tree. And he was shocked when he hit the ground.
Anyway, I'd been making crack about trying to spear a deer from a tree stand. You know, it's right under you, throw a spear straight down into it. He said that he'd like to kill one with a knife. I told him that I didn't think that he would ever get that close to one. Of course, he had to prove me wrong. We were probably 30 yds apart. I'd seen the deer walking up the hill towards the stand, but I wasn't going to shoot towards it.
So I watch BOOB pick up his rifle and aim at the deer. He waits until it's almost under his stand, then puts his rifle down.
I'm thinking "What the heck, why isn't he shooting?"
Then I see him take the knife out and thought "Why is he doing that?"
Then he unclips the rope (before the tree stand harness was popular) and I'm thinking " HOLY SH%T, please God, tell me he's not..."
Sure enough, he steps off the stand and drops right onto the deer! (just like the beast in the movie Predator, for lack of a better way to describe it).
He landed flat on top of it, and I still don't know how he didn't break the deers' back. I don't know how he didn't break his arms or legs either.
He missed the stab on the way down too, somehow. He's on the ground with the deer, half laying on it, trying to hold on to it. It's beating the snot of him in the meantime.
He managed to stab it in the ribs and then the deer really went crazy. He finally got on top of it and stabbed it through the back and in the ribs again. I'm not sure how many times he actually did it. Then he just held on until it stopped struggling. Then he cut its throat, of course.
He cut himself on the hand and on the arm in the process, but they weren't bad.
He looked like someone had dumped a 5 gallon bucket of blood on him.
I was totally speechless. I really couldn't believe what I'd just seen. I walked down and just looked at him. He says "told you I'd get one with a knife."
I just said " You are NOT right." Thank goodness I had a pickup, because there was no way he was sitting inside my vehicle.
I never hunted with him again after that. Years later, he was getting treated for mental issues, and all I could think was that he should have started treatment years ago.
