Twenty years ago I worked in Buffalo, NY for ITT Terryphone. My first employee was a young man named Jay Mercer. He was fresh out of the Air Force and had moved to western NY to be close to his family. He was also an avid archer.

Jay talked about hunting and his bow. He captured my enthusiasm and I bought a Martin Warthog. At the time is was one of the best compound bows on the market. It had a laminated wooden riser (the handle thingy) and a good cam system.

Jay's grandpa lived near Cooperstown, NY. He owned 126 acres in a heavily wooded, hilly area. Jay and I spent two falls hunting whitetail deer on his grandpa's property.

One of our more interesting experiments was building custom tree stands. We bought all of the hardware through Pennsylvania Outdoor Warehouse (I still have the box that some of the equipment came in, that's how I know) and added a custom plywood platform. This enabled us to make the dimensions a generous 24" X 30".

The stands didn't work out too well. They work by inching up a fairly straight, limbless tree. The object is to get at least 15 feet and preferable about 20 feet up into the tree. Once in place the first thing one notices is that there is a tree at one's back. This is very awkward.

That first time with the tree stand I picked out what appeared to be the perfect tree. I got my stand in the tree and after about 45 minutes I was set. Hey, it's not an easy process. I sat in the tree and waited. I envisioned a deer walking out to my left. It didn't happen that way.

First off, after two days I saw no deer at all. I think they showed up after I left and left before I got there. Secondly, on the second hunting trip I saw two deer. One walked out to my right. I raised the bow and started to draw it back as I swung the the right. Big problem. There was a tree in my way. I could not contort myself enough to figure out how to draw back a 60 pound bow, get my eye into the peep sight and let an arrow fly. All of my contorting gave the deer amply opportunity to run away. The deer got away.

I spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to solve this puzzle. I never found a solution. After a while I got really bored. I shot an arrow into the ground (to the left) below the tree stand. I got down to retrieve the arrow. That's when I saw the second, and last, deer, ever, while bow hunting.

Jay became equally bored. We spent the rest of the day playing a wicked game of hide-and-go-seek in our cammos. Once I walked into a big clearing. It was wide open with a big tree that was down and stretched out through the middle. I looked for a very long time. I saw nothing but flora a fauna. Then Jay moved his hand. And suddenly he sprang into sight. He was standing on the big log. Until I saw the movement I'd mistaken him for a really big branch.

A little while later Jay was looking for me. He walked right by me, within a few feet. I stood still and waited. When he was within arms length, looking away from me, I reached out and touched him. He jumped. I laughed. He didn't. He was still mad at me several hours later as we pulled into Buffalo, keeping quiet through the entire ride and dinner.

I thought of all this during the past week because my son-in-law stopped by to show me his new Martin bow. It is nothing like the one I have. It is made with an aluminum riser and a single cam. I don't understand how it works but the arrow flight sure is fast. I got out my old Warthog and tuned it up. We've been shooting almost every day since...........
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