Mid to late 1970's. One of the hunters in my group drops a buck (described as the largest buck to ever roam the Polk County woods), and along with his son, then get down to go gut the buck.
As they approach the area where the buck (nearly 500 pounds, and a rack so big, that it appeared he had glued a rocking chair to his head) dropped in his tracks, they realize the buck is no longer there.
They spent hours searching the area, but nothing is ever found but the blood pool from where the deer had dropped upon being shot.
This tree stand thus became named "NowYouSeeHimNowYouDon't" until its demise years later.
Just a few years later, in the same stand, the same hunter and son shoot and drop another monster buck (supposedly almost as big as the the one from a few years earlier.)
This time the father and son get down, and approach the downed buck. Getting out their buck knives and beginning to fill out their tag. The buck suddenly jumped up and ran off, never to be seen again!
Legend says he still roams the Polk County woods, crawling thru swamps, digging his own tunnels, and even learning how to climb trees to avoid hunters.
As we tell the youngsters in our hunting group, "keep your ears tuned to detail, your eyes tuned for movement, and your mouth closed; and you might just get a chance at the PHANTOM"
Naz MacBook's Link
The farmer leads me up to the top of a steep hill at 5 AM . He tells me to watch the valley floor when the sun comes up and to follow the fence back to the farm .
When the sun comes up I look over to the fence and theres about 1,000 White Turkeys looking at me from just 10 feet . I hear oak leaves rustling down below and see this big buck looking for Acorns .
I fire and all heck breaks loose , all 1,000 Turkeys scream and jump about 6 feet . The farmer and his son drive up the hill to help me drag the buck . They pickup 8 dead Turkeys , he said they died of Heart attacks when the gun when off . Had a big country breakfast while his son cleaned and packaged the birds . What A trip .
As he walked toward the Junipers the huge buck ran out the back end . He snapped a shot off and the buck piled up dead . As he was gutting the buck he took a smoke break , walked over to the Junipers and saw a second monster Mulie . Both were 4 1/2 year old 5 x5's .
He spent most of the morning getting both of them in his truck . He drove to the Wardens station and turned himself in . The Warden went to the hunting spot to confirm the story and said , " thanks for being honest " and issued him a second tag .
"BANG!!" rings out a few seconds later. We get to the end of the drive and the stander who shot is waiting for us to track the deer. We find the blood trail and the deer is "butt shot" dragging it's hind legs in a ditch about 75 yards away. The stander walks up and finishes the deer off.
Couple minutes later, the stander's father walks up and says, "I see you shot another deer in the ass?"
Stander replies..."Nope!. I shot the deer in the head and it kept on running, so I shot it in the ass to kill it."
By Wed. we have 1 tag left and we talk our non hunting buddy into going out for the evening hunt . About 3 PM he walks out the door and we start pounding beers . We have windows open because the smell of beer farts and smoke is getting pretty bad .
We hear a shot and head outside worrying about our pal . He's standing next to a 200 foot long Pine plantation next to the farmhouse . He decided to check it out because no one hunted it all week .
He bent down and saw 4 legs and a deers chest . He fired and a 152 inch 12 point fell over . The mount still sits over his fireplace and he never hunted again .
I have a lot of notes and stories . Yes i have been told to write a book .
