Every time I see this post come up, I think about the deer I've killed through the years, close and far, but the one I think of most regarding the question here, is this one.
It happened over 15 years ago, and the deer I got that day was a very nice 4x4 mulie that I happened to walk up on, as I was wanting to glass an area from this little precipice I'd usually go to, to glass this certain area. I didn't even really sneak, nor tried to be particularly quiet as I came to the edge of the point to use my binos. As I reached my spot to glass, right below me, barely 10' away, bedded down, looking away from me, chewing its cud, was this nice mulie buck. I can still see his head bobbing a bit as he chewed contentedly. I had my 6mm Rem. that day, and it was slung over my shoulder when I chanced on the deer, so I slowly brought the rifle up to shoot, flicked off the safe, put the scope at the base of the skull (pretty much filled the scope view), and quickly squeezed off the shot. That deer didn't have a clue as to what happened, and was dead before his head hit the ground. Never moved from his bed. Maybe was the best/quickest kill I ever made on a critter. So, tagged and field dressed the buck, and went to town. The time of that hunt, from the time I left my vehicle was about 20 minutes, tops. I actually got to drive within less than 50 yds. from the kill site, besides.
I was working at our local meat plant that year skinning wild game for my friend who ran the place, and since it was a nice deer, I brought it in to show it off a bit. My boss buddy told me to leave it there, and he'd have it processed, so I did (I was skinning that night, so we'd visit on particulars about the deal). He also told me he wanted to send off the hide with some others he already had there to have tanned. It was a beautiful, nice big hide (with no holes...), and it came back really, really nice. Still have it, and used it a few weeks ago as part of our primitive camp at a rendezvous my wife went up to in MT.
As a close to the story here, my friend who owned the meat plant never charged me a dime to process that deer, and when the hide came back from the tanner, he gifted that to me, too. That deer season was a real treasured one for sure. And those who've seen the hide, remark as to what a nice one it is, and always look for a hole, which isn't there...so I tell them this story... Ha!
