Sometime between 1999 and 2001, I was hunting on a wildlife management area in central Florida.

It was archery and muzzleloader hunting for deer only in wild hog.

I was hunting alone, but I've never minded that.

I was a shift worker at the time and enjoyed the solitude. And until that trip in September, I had never had a bad experience in the woods.

I had built and placed a 12-foot conduit tree stand in a new area on the south side of the lake

days prior to hunting the new location.

I was using a compound bow and I could shoot roughly 60 to 70 yards. I had a sweet spot attached to a

pine tree on the edge of a pine plat bordering a small oak hammock and myrtle trees that acted as a natural hedge of camouflage.

Around 2 p.m., I parked my truck about a mile from the stand and walked in for an evening hunt.

Soon after settling in, I heard some concerning sounds.

Coming from my left near the myrtle trees about 10 to 15 feet high,

I could hear growling and a very deep breathing. I had first thought it was an alligator because the

paper map I was using indicated that it was near a lake, even though I couldn't see the lake.

At that point, the sounds were loud enough that I

figured my hunt was over so I decided to mimic the sounds. I was answered by a deep

raspy growling that I could feel as much as I could hear. Surprisingly it got

quiet for the next several minutes. I was sure they were coming from the woods, so I started looking intently in that direction,

trying to find and identify the source.

I was getting pretty concerned about the growls when two deer meandered through some brush

about a hundred yards off to my left.

They didn't seem alarmed or panicked in any way,

as if they hadn't heard the sounds just a few minutes ago. As they calmly moved toward the myrtle

...