Running Dogs on Christmas Eve 2009

It was my freshmen year in highschool and my family & I were headed up to Simsboro (a little town in north Louisiana just outside of Ruston) to visit and hunt. I loved this place so much and decided that I had to bring one of my best friends, Hallie, with me. I had big plans made for us to go late night mudriding, deer hunting (still & running dogs), and coonhunting. She had never run dogs before or coon hunted. I was also pretty excited because I killed my big buck on Halloween that year and decided that holidays must be lucky!
The way we run dogs in Simsboro is not the same way that most people do. We all pile up into 4 wheel drive trucks (mostly old toyota tacomas on super swampers, with KC lights) with CB radios. We let the dogs (beagles) loose on one of our large properties, and listen carefully to what they tell us by the pitch and length of their barks/howls. My favorite dogs were Billy Bob and Troublecat, rest in peace babies--they lived a long happy life and ran many a deer up. We communicate with each other on the radios, so we can know where each person is or is headed at all times. Most people use shotguns, I personally used my brand new model 700 Remington .308 rifle (an early Christmas present and reward for killing my first deer) during this hunt & Hallie used Tim's .270. When we can tell that the dogs are on a deer's trail, we drive (off road) in the direction that they are headed and get a good lil ways ahead of them. Sometimes the deer are way ahead of the dogs or will slip through when they hear the dogs.
At one point we were on Clark Cantebury's family land, where they have some chicken houses. Tim, Hallie, and I were standing on a pipeline and a red/gray fox popped out and started toward the chicken houses. "Shoot it!" Tim said. So I instantly dropped to one knee, threw up my gun and shot. Just so you know, it was & is currently illegal to hunt foxes in Louisiana, however it is legal to kill them if they are consider a nuisance. In this case we were not hunting fox, we were hunting deer, and the fox was a nuisance in this area. I respect all animals, and I do not condone killing them just for the heck of it, I want to make that very clear! Rachel, my sister, actually had a pet fox (she had a special license for it) that we kept and eventually released. I miss that cuddly thing but he was still a wild animal, not meant to be a pet. Anyway, I really wanted to mount this fox I shot because it was so beautiful, but it was shot with my .308 when it probably should have been shot with a little bit smaller round. So I settled for keeping the pelt and still have it today.
Later, we rode around another property (the Durretts' maybe) and Tim, Hallie, and I stopped at a well sight. Hallie and Tim climbed the well tower as we could hear the dogs in the distance getting closer. I spotted a doe through the trees and tried to point her out, "Shoot her Hallie!" Neither her or Tim could see her, but I could still tell exactly where she was. It is a bit difficult to shoot a deer on the run, with a rifle, especially when you're shooting through branches and brush. I shot, BANG..BANG..BANG, chambering rounds as fast as I could. I'm not sure if I hit her on the first, second, or third shot, but I hit her and she went down! Tim taught me how to field dress a deer that day, which is gutting it without skinning it, it is quick and easy (just don't pop the stomach open by accident!) and makes it easier to get up into the bed of a truck. The deer weighed about 120-130 pounds. This was my second deer ever, first doe ever, and first deer with my new gun. I killed my first deer/buck on Halloween, and my second deer on Christmas Eve Day, so far my holiday luck theory had proven true.
Hallie & I made some great memories that Christmas break. We got stuck in a lot of mud riding fourwheelers, she shot her first coon, and we made jokes sitting in the deer stand. On one of our last days we hunted a huge field on the Atkins' (Tim's parents) family's property. It wasn't too long after we climbed into the black box stand that Hallie fell asleep...I'm talkin' head back, mouth open, best-sleep-you'll-ever-get. It is also believed by some hunters, that sleeping will bring the deer out if you're lucky, and you will wake up to see them standing there...just ask my dad about that one! I had a pretty good feeling about that morning and since I already got my deer, I wanted to make sure my best friend had another opportunity to get one. I watched the far edge of the woods (about 350 yards away) for any sign of movement. As soon as he finally poked his head out of the woods, I woke Hallie up, "It's a spike, you can go ahead and shoot him." He was walking about 250-300 yards out in front of us when he turned broadside and she took her shot. Tim and his dad came out with Buster, a walker hound, to help look for the deer. We looked everywhere, no sign of blood, no bullet, nothing, and Buster didn't find him either--he was the one that got away. Even the best of us miss from time to time, it just makes it that much more addicting.