What a day! (November 2008)

This all started by me calling Bowser on Sunday to inform him of the good news that I was signing with Japan. We were talking and he mentioned his father in-law's land up in Bonham Texas, and that I could hunt it anytime. I said, “I'll be there next weekend!” He has 750 acres of good land that is hardly ever hunted. On Thursday night I pack my bags and every weapon I own. I wake up at 5 a.m. on Friday morning so I can work out and get on the road by 9a.m. to catch the evening hunt. I’m cruising up I45 when my agent calls and asks for a fax number to send me the terms agreement for my Japanese baseball contract. “Uh…I'm driving…just send it to Bowser's bank and I will sign it when I get there.” I inform Bowser I will be receiving a fax shortly. I continue driving and make it to the bank in great time. I give Bowser a big hug and we immediately head for the fax machine. There it is, a contract entailing all the salary info, signing bonus, and incentives package. It’s crazy to see it all in writing, it doesn’t seem real. I sign it and put it back in the fax machine. Bowser, “Go ahead, with a push of that button, your life is goin to change.” I smile and push the big green button. Bowser congratulates me and we take off for his house to grab a couple things for the hunt.

While at Browser's house, a buddy of his who is a hunter drops by and I start askin him about the deer in the area. He said his brother had killed a good 8 point about 40 miles from there. “40 miles!, what's around here?” He looked confused and doesn’t recollect any nice bucks being killed around these parts. Sweet, I drove 5 hours to hunt land with no deer. I'm still feeling optimistic as we head out to the farm. Bowser has very little hunting experience (he wouldn’t know a buck from a beaver). He also knows the land about as well as I do. We pull into the property and he says, “Well, I saw a couple deer in this field a few years ago.” Oh boy, this might be a long weekend. After driving for a bit, I see a natural alley cutting into a thicket. The cut is surrounded by thick timber on 3 sides and a pond back behind it. We get out and walk down the treelines looking for some signs. In all, we find ONE deer track! Bowser,“That’s a good sign aint it?” I’m feelin less and less optimistic by the minute.  We are running out of time so I just decide this place is as good as any. I corn what little trails I could find and start to set up the blind. The day before I had a bought a pop up ground blind with a gift certificate I received from Sara’s sister, Kristen. It Rocks! It went up in a flash and the thing was the size of a small living room. Bowser and I fill the blind with two chairs, two guns, a backpack, and a cooler full of beer. We hide the truck a couple hundred yards away and settle in for the hunt.  Bowser and I catch up and tell stories of the old days (Grayson baseball). I teach him a little about hunting because he has a genuine interest and wants to start doing it more. We're having a good ole time drinkin beer and laughin. About 15 minutes into the hunt Bowser says “I gotta pee.” Damnit! I find an old water bottle in my backpack and he proceeds to fill it up. Great, deer love the smell of beer and human piss. On top of the odors pouring out of our blind, I have the dang whooping cough and can't stop. I'm just a coughin away. I say “We might as well pull the truck up and sit on the tailgate and turn on some Willie Nelson, cuz we aren’t gonna see a damn thing.” Another ten minutes go by and I have to pee too. Over the next hour and a half, we fill up half a dozen beer cans with piss! I give up on seeing anything and am just enjoying being outdoors and hangin with one of my best friends in the world. As the sun starts to fade, I tell Bowser this is the time of day when things start moving. Right as I'm saying that he says, “What's that out in the field?” I quickly throw up my binoculars. “That’s an expletive buck Craig!!!” About 300 yards away a beautiful mature buck is sauntering right towards us! My heart starts to pound. I’m playing it cool telling Craig we'll just wait for him to come on in for an easy shot. While the deer is making his way towards us, I am trying to grab all the beer and piss cans from atop the cooler and get them out of the way. Bowser suggests we switch seats because I would have a better angle in his seat. So we stand up and fumble around this blind knocking over piss cans and tripping over the cooler. I settle in Bowser's chair and the deer is now only 150 yards away! I get in a comfortable position and get my gun up. The buck keeps on walking in. I put my crosshairs on him as Bowser tells me to let him know when I'm gonna shoot. The deer gets about 80 yards away and throws his head up, no doubt smelling the filth coming from our direction, and takes off running. NOOOOOOOO! Luckily the big boy stopped after about 20 yards and looks dead at us, standing broadside. BANG!!!!!!! The deer bucks violently and takes off for cover. He’s hit good! I have trouble finding him again in my scope and Bowser is screaming for me to shoot again. I finally find him, he's standing by the treeline and is starting to fade. He staggers and topples over in a heap of fur and horns! Bowser, “HE”S DOWN!!!” We explode out of the blind hollering and cussin. “WHOOOO….F- YEAHHHH….THAT’S WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT!!!” Now let me remind you, me and Bowser have won two national championships together, and I can't remember us getting as excited over that as we did over this deer. We jump up and down, hug, and high five! We grab a celebratory beer and make our way across the field towards our trophy. As we make our approach, the emotions and adrenalin are flooding thru me. Granted, it had dropped about 20 degrees since the beginning of the hunt, but I was shaking like a dang leaf! Bowser, “Are you cold or something?” I have faced some of the best pitchers in the world on some of the biggest stages, and have never had the shakes like I did after takin this deer. It was as beautiful on the ground as it was in the field. (By no means was this deer a monster, I have seen and shot much bigger, but for these parts, it was a real trophy). It was a fully mature buck in the prime of his development, with long arching main beams, lengthy pitchfork-like tines, and a broad, full neck and chest. (I later showed a pic of the buck to the land owner who has lived on that land for 60 years and he doesn't remember seeing many deer that big.) Craig and I high five some more.  I lift the beauty up and take a closer look. What a sight! I pose quickly for a couple pics with my cell phone and Bowser says, “Chase, check out the moon.” On one horizon, a bright yellow full moon was just rising over the treeline, surrounded by wispy clouds, while on the other horizon the sun had just set and was casting orange, yellow, and purple rays up and out over the sky above. We take a second to take in the beauty of our situation. Best friends, hunting, and nature at it’s best. It don’t get no better. Craig and I walk to grab the truck while I call my parents and Sara and give them the good news. We get back to the deer and I quickly field dress it and lift it into the back of the truck. We are still laughin at the chain of events that just occurred. We take the deer to Bower's' mother in-laws house and right as we get there Leslie and Bowser's three boys pull up. The boys are in heaven. Leslie rolls her eyes at us while we excitedly tell the story to her and the kids. We take a ton of pics for documentation and then we decide we must find a way to skin and quarter this thing. We head up to Wal-Mart to buy a big cooler and some rope. We explain to a Wal-Mart worker our situation and how I need to get this deer back to Houston for processing. He says, “Hell, I got a neighbor that processes deer for his friends and family in his barn, call him up.” It’s 9 p.m. and I call this random stranger named Larry. He says, “Bring him on over, I'll have him ready by Sunday morning.” We take the deer out into the middle of nowhere and this 70 year old man is waitin for us. He strings him up in his barn and skins and quarters it in about 15 minutes. “Ya'll come on back Sunday morning and he’ll be ready.” What a great man, he casually mentions he has cancer and that he just enjoys working and helping people out. He was stone cold country and will prolly work his fingers to the bone for the remainder of his life. We profusely thank him and tell him we will see him on Sunday. On Sunday morning, we head out to get our deer meat and he and the meat are waitin for us. I ask what I owe him and he says whatever I think he’s worth. I hand him $100 bucks and he hands me back $20 sayin he wasn’t worth that much. Ha. We thank him some more and he tells us to drop back by anytime. It’s amazing the people God puts into your life to help you out.  Time to load up all my gear, say goodbye to the Bowser family and hit the road. What a great trip, it's not every day you sign a major league contract and kill an eight-point on the same day. I feel blessed to have these opportunities and will continue to share them with my loved ones to enjoy.


See ya on down the road,

Chase