S. Paul Christ's Page

I'm a Navy Reservist. I got deployed to support the Army in Iraq back in December of '08. I was happy to get back to Texas in time for gun season. I was able to make opening weekend. I've got two good buddies who hunt with me, who are also in my Reserve unit. Scott and Scott. Scott M.'s Dad owns the property we hunt on. We are very blessed to have the opportunity to hunt his land. Scott M. and Scott U. are always there when I need them and I try to return the favor as much as I can.

While I was gone, they took my boy hunting, helped my wife out with the car and sent me care packages. Not only that, they made sure my feeder was up and running, filled with corn, and that my tripod stand was ready to go.

We go hunting almost every weekend during deer season. We have a nice little cabin. No water or electricity, but we like it that way.

Back on November 14, 2009, Scott U. and I were sitting in his stand. I was just wanting to film what came to the feeder. I had a football game to go to later that afternoon and needed to leave kind of early that day.

Now at this point, I need to provide a little background. We've been hunting this property for about 4 years now. The only thing we've shot so far has been hogs. We see a lot of little does and young bucks, but we're waiting for them to grow up a little before we take them. We haven't seen a good size harvestable buck out there that we could get a shot at. Well, it was early in the morning, About 0640. It was still kind of dark. There was a little doe at the feeder. She got spooked and ran off to the left. Scott U. saw something big come to the feeder from the right. He was dark and his head was down. Because of his angle of approach, and profile, I thought he was a pig. I tried to see him through my binoculars, but they fogged up. I got the camera on him, but couldn't see horns. Scott U. and I argued back and forth a little about if he was a pig or buck. Scott said he saw horns. He gave my his rifle so I could scope him and sure enough, he was a keeper. Biggest 8 point we've seen out there ever. I said he was right and pushed the rifle back to him. He said he couldn't get a good angle for the shot because he was too tall for the window. He said shoot him. I said that it was his stand, feeder and rifle. He said "Shoot!" That's all it took and I made a clean neck shot and dropped him in his tracks.

I still think Scott U. was just being nice, since I just got back from Iraq the week before, but sometimes we need to let people be nice to us if they want to. Scott and Scott are the best hunting buddies a guy could have and I'm glad we've been able to share our love of the outdoors and hunting with our sons at deer camp.