My name is Cameron Buckner and this is the What If It's True Podcast.

I have four stories in this podcast and I hope you guys enjoy them.

Alright, here we go.

The writer's name is Derek. This is a story about a ghost and he claims the story is true.

I grew up hunting in the creek bottoms of the P River Basin that borders Pike and Barber Counties.

I'm 50 now. Although I still hunt, there's a lot more ever-slow stalking involved these days.

What I'm about to relate happened 33 years ago.

Until now, I've only told it to one other person, but I know this is a place to share without ridicule or judgment.

That has given me the courage to finally tell my tale.

It was a cold, dry morning and late December of 1987 with little to no wind, perfect conditions for hunting.

We'd had a good acorn crop that year and the swamp I was hunting was covered with several varieties of oak trees.

The white oaks and the water oaks were the primary feeding source for the deer and signs were everywhere.

Scrapes and rubs were seemingly on every trail. The rut was getting into full swing.

I walked half a mile to the bottoms where I came up on a large popular tree that was down, likely from a recent storm.

The leaves were still heavy on the tops of the trees, making a perfect natural ground blind.

It's close proximity to two intersecting game trails that were well beaten down with tracks, clinched my decision to make this my stand.

Within 10 or 15 minutes of settling in, I watched as two mature do's both with yearlings they fed through.

More deer walked in over the next hour, and I was now optimistic a good buck would show himself.

Because it was a dry day and the ground was covered in leaf litter, I heard each deer before seeing it from my vantage point in the fallen tree top.

By 8.30 a.m., all was quiet. I was sitting motionless and focused on the trail crossing in front of me when I caught movement to my right.

There was no noise to alert me, but I definitely saw something in my peripheral.

I slowly turned my head, and I was startled to find a man standing only ten feet for me.

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