Just a few days after bemoaning his bad luck to his grandmother, Kansas deer hunter Lane Sadler got a forkful of venison to go with his crow.
The 18-year-old from Derby (south of Wichita) had no reason to believe his grandmother’s 180 acres in Sumner County would yield anything spectacular. He knew the place held at least one decent buck, but he had nothing to show for his many attempts to corral it.
His luck changed on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 2017, just a few days after telling his grandmother he was never going to shoot a decent buck there.
The kid took his .30-06 to a homemade ground blind and sat on a 5-gallon dove bucket. He remembers it was a lot colder than he’d expected.
“I had memorized every white branch anywhere in my sight line because they freak me out,” he told Gita Smith, who penned his story for Rack magazine. “If I see one move, I think it could be a buck coming across the fence line.”
The hypothetical actually happened that day, and Lane did indeed freak out. “I was shaking so bad that I shot and missed completely,” he said.
Fortunately for Lane, the buck didn’t put pedal to metal. It simply kept on walking.
Lane had to use a pocketknife to pry the spent cartridge from his rifle’s barrel before he could chamber another, dropping his clip in the process. To his ears, he made more noise than a marching band in a closet. And he was breathing like a woman in labor.
By the time he was ready to take a follow-up, the deer had come 25 yards closer to him. It got no closer, however, and would go no farther.
“I watch all the hunting shows on TV, and I didn’t believe I’d ever get a chance to shoot such a nice buck,” he said. “I didn’t even feel the cold any more. I was the warmest, happiest person on Earth!”
I bet he was.
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