– A Story from a Reader in the Texas Hill Country
I’d been looking forward to this day all year!! It was opening day of youth deer season in the Texas Hill country. My dad and I got to the blind around 4:00 and settled in. We sat and watched the bucks chase does, but could never get a shot.
It got really dark so it was time to go. Dad opened the door to get out of the blind, and I said, “Daddy, what’s that sound?” (This was before he got his hearing aids and probably why he got them!!) He answered, “What sound?” It was a rattling sound. When he finally heard the sound he knew it was rattlesnake. He slammed the door quick. We couldn’t find a flashlight, and his phone was dead. It was so dark by that time that that we couldn’t see a thing. My dad was going to make a run for the truck. He told me to shut the door behind him and do not open it. He made a huge leap out of the blind and ran as fast as he could. He said it was like doing hurdles in high school! He thought everything was a snake! I was sitting in the blind by myself, and had shut all the windows because I was really scared.
Eventually, my dad made it back to the blind with the truck and found the snake two feet from the door of the blind. He was trying to tell me he was going to shoot it, but I couldn’t hear because of the windows and door being shut. Luckily, I didn’t get out of the blind.
He shot it many times in the head to make sure it was dead. All the while I was hoping the snake didn’t bite him. He got me out of the blind after it was dead. We looked at the snake. It was massive! I felt a huge relief when I finally got in the truck. That is one hunt I will never forget. And now, we have five flashlights in the blind!
