Another "Bobcat Bob" Hunting Adventure Sam Ducharme Woodstock, CT

This is a story of a successful hunt in Connecticut which took place in1997. The story starts about 1/2 hour after dark when I arrive home from the woods to find my buddy Bob ("Bobcat Bob" as we call him) standing in my kitchen talking on the phone. It was mid-November, and, like thousands of hunters throughout the country, we had been in the woods looking for our share of venison. I could hear Bobcat asking our other friend Bob (we call him "the other Bob") to meet us at one of our favorite hunting spots to help retrieve a deer he had shot. Hearing this, I set out to get my flashlight and lantern, because it was obvious Bobcat needed help finding his deer. This wasn't a surprise.

Although Bobcat is a seasoned hunter, his hunts always seem to have an unusual twist to them. Like the time he field-dressed his first deer. The other Bob and I found him exhausted, soaked in sweat and covered with blood. At first we thought he had been in a terrible accident. He was sitting near his truck--nearly dead. According to his story, however, we learned that his first attempt to dress a deer was done with a kitchen knife and it was pretty messy. As for the exhaustion and sweat, he had dragged the deer by the hooves for a half mile! This was verified by the pile of leaves and dirt that he managed to drag with the deer. We wouldn't have found him sitting there if he hadn’t been too exhausted to load the deer into the truck.

My wife explained to me that, as expected, Bobcat had shot a deer and couldn't find it. "No problem," I said, "we'll just find the blood trail and track it." Just then Bobcat got off the phone and said, "The other Bob is meeting us there." By now it was pretty dark and I asked Bobcat if he had marked the spot where he had shot it. "Didn't have to, I already dressed it," he replied. Now I needed an explanation. Come to find out, Bobcat dropped the deer with one shot from his tree stand and dressed it where it was. He then carried his tree stand to the edge of the woods and returned for the deer. This time, however, he couldn't find it. That is what had brought him to my kitchen. True to form, Bobcat was having another typical hunt.

The other Bob was waiting in the field, as planned, and we were off to find the deer. Flashlights and lantern in hand, we headed off on one of the logging roads leading to Bobcat's tree. Bobcat told us to keep our eyes out for a bend in the road with a large rock alongside it; there we would find his deer. He assured us that we would recognize the rock because it had his rifle and bloody coveralls on it. After an hour of searching, I headed off on another road that Bobcat insisted wasn't the one and seventy yards up the road we found the deer, rifle, bloody coveralls, and a kitchen knife. After a few finishing touches on the dressing job, and a long drag, Bobcat's deer was finally out of the woods. All in all, another successful "Bobcat Bob" hunt.