This story is from my fist year hunting my place in Alabama, about 5 or 6 years ago.

I was sitting in a climbing stand one evening overlooking a crossing on a small creek. Really thick on one side and farely thick on the other. I was about 150 yards from a hiway that is usually pretty dead, but was kinda busy on this evening. I think there was a ball game in Troy or something.

Just as it was getting dark, I hear a deer coming in farely quick in the dry leaves. It stops probably 50 or 60 yards from me on the not as thick side. I figure it's waiting until dark to cross the creek into the thick low pines. I wait until I can't see my hand in front of my face and then wait a little longer. I never heard it leave and assumed it bedded there. I climb down as quiet as I canand didn't use a light and I eased out toward the hiway where I was parked.

The next morning I went back in early also with no light. I didn't know what it was the night before, but it sounded like a big deer and I figured it might come back. I climbed up as quiet as I could probably a half hour before it started breaking day. Closer to daylight I hear something moving around about where I heard the deer come in the night before. I quit hearing it about the time I could start seeing the ground. As it got light, I focused my attention on the open ridge I could see over the top of the thick low pines, figuring if the deer behind me started to move, I could hear it since I had been hearing it move around in the dry leaves. I sat all morning and didn't see a deer and hadn't heard the deer in the thick behind me since before daylight. I sat till about 10 and decided I was done being cold and was going to climb down. I figured the deer in the thick must have slipped out since I hadn't heard it, but I tried to climb down quiet and slow just in case. I focused all my attention on where I had heard the deer as I climbed down. I hand went down about 4 or 5 feet when I saw a patch of deer hide through a hole in the limbs. I stood there trying to tell what it was for a while and couldn't make out any more of it. I figured since I had already gotten away with all I had, I'd climb down a hair more to see what I was seeing. When I did, I could make out part of a shoulder and a beam of what looked like a pretty good rack. I'm not picky so I had seen enough. I found his shoulder in the scope and shot him. When I did, he didn't even wiggle. I climbed on down, quicker this time and made my way over there. There lay about a 160# 15" wide 6 point.

Once I put it all together, I figured out the deer had been hit by a car. When I heard him come in the night before, he must not have been feeling good and layed down. Then the next morning, what I heard was him kicking around dieing. I wound up shooting a dead deer between the shoulder blades.

Not really an exciting story, but something I bet hasn't happened to many people.