Good friends, hunting, and Laffy Taffy by Chris Robbins (splitdroptyne) My 2006 deer season consisted of events that were typically just things that I would dream about. Not only did I harvest a record book buck, but I was able to share the experience with a long time friend and the guy who introduced me to hunting. When it comes down to it, these are the things that hunting is really all about. The story that I am writing talks about the actual hunt but also touches on the friendships and good times that are created thru our hunting experiences. I truly believe that my story will fit very nicely on this website called Whitetail World. It is quickly obvious that the members of this site are genuine, positive and very classy. So now I will get it started, I hope you enjoy.   Brad Shepherd and I became friends around the age of 19 and he is the guy that I owe this all to; he took me to deer camp at his Dads’ farm and I have been hooked ever since. Brad’s Dad’s name is Steve Shepherd and I took my first doe from his farm and his friend Eddie Swindell showed me how to field dress that deer. The deer hunting wasn’t the only thing that got me hooked. You wouldn’t believe the food that was cooked up at that deer camp. After eating the Friday night cook which consisted of fried deer steaks, cooked in cream of mushroom gravy for six hours in a Dutch oven covered with coals out of the camp fire. Man that is good, but anyway after tasting that; I wanted deer meat in my freezer from that point on. There are a lot of people missing out on not only the good food, but the good times and the comradery that go along with deer camp and hunting in general.   After a few years of only participating in the shotgun season, Brad continued to harass me about getting a bow.  I came across a used bow and Brad provided me with a release and some arrows. I had never shot a bow up until that point. So I started practicing, I went thru the pain of the string hitting my forearm leaving large whelps and bruising. But it didn’t take me long to figure out how to take care of that problem. I don’t know how many deer I missed at first, but each time I would explain the event to Brad and he would give me advice and talk about what I did wrong and I learned from my mistakes. I just about gave up one day though and was going to call it quits with the bow, after missing three opportunities. Fortunately Brad talked me out of it, and I sure am glad that he did.    Brad had gained permission to hunt a new farm in Southern Indiana but wasn’t able to take me until about 2004. That same year, Brad took a nice 125” 8 pointer as he and I hunted together just like we used to at his Dads’ farm.The next season was slow; neither of us harvested a bow buck during the 2005 season, but the next year things definitely changed. Here is what went down November 4th, 2006, during the Indiana archery season. Brad and I are headed to the farm bright and early so that we would arrive in plenty of time to gear up and get in our stands plenty before daylight.   On the way down we discussed strategy; he had purchased a bottle of “doe to door” over the internet from a company called “Ol’ Drop Tyne”. We had used several different brands of scents, but never had we witnessed what was about to take place. After arriving and gearing up, we headed for the woods and our stand locations. Just as we reached the edge of the woods Brad stopped and pulled out a drag line from his backpack. He took the lid off of the bottle of the doe to door and added some yellow love to end of the drag. We walked about 50 yards or so and stopped to douse the drag with some more scent. After doing so, we continued on to our stand sites. We came to Brad’s tree first and he handed me the drag, I continued through the woods heading for my tree. I stopped about midway between the stand sites and hung the drag from a sapling directly between the two of us. I am not sure what it is about this scent from Ol’ Drop Tyne but I am a believer and will continue to use “doe to door” as long as they are bottling it. Brad and I both watched several bucks following the path of the drag line; it was amazing; I had never seen scent work like this before. Brad had even more action going on over on his ridge, I couldn’t believe the story he told me at the end of the morning hunt. The spots that we had stopped at to add scent to the drag were bringing in bucks from every direction just like there had been a hot doe go thru. He had deer all over him but none at the time that he would consider a shooter. We were in agreement that we would manage the land the best that we could. We would try to only take what we thought were mature bucks, some of the neighbors were trying to do this as well. Just as Brad thought that he wasn’t going to see a shooter buck, in walks a giant 8 pointer. This 8 pointer appeared to have 12" G2's and look like a definite P & Y. There was also a small buck standing in the last spot where we had stopped to add more scent to the drag. Brad was watching the small buck when he noticed the bucks ears go back and the giant 8 to his right for some odd reason just sat down. Brad turned and looked to his left and it didn’t take him long to figure out why the giant 8 was submitting. The monster drop tine had just made an appearance and was heading for the spot where the small buck was standing. As you can imagine a nice dose of adrenaline rushed through Brad’s body. Fortunately for me, Brad was unable to get a shot on this monster buck as he kept at a safe out of bow range distance. As the buck passed and walked away from Brad, it is now heading in my direction. It’s not long and now I have the buck in my sights, and I can still play the scenario in my head as plain as day. At first I am just watching and drooling as the deer walks behind me at about 80 yards or so. I am admiring the awesome bone show and the first time that I had ever seen a deer with a drop tine while on stand. The buck teases me as it turns towards my tree, but it never gets in range and eventually walks away. I didn’t get a shot at this awesome creature, but couldn’t wait to talk to Brad.  Brad and I met up and headed back to the truck for lunch; we changed our clothes and headed for town as we normally did after the morning hunt ended. We usually get a bite to eat at the gas station and take a lap around the county to see if anyone else had any luck. We could hardly eat, the only thing we could do was talk about the hunt, it had to be the best hunt that he and I had ever been on, even without harvesting a deer. I don’t remember if I ever even sat down that morning, now that’s a good hunt. Oh yeah, at lunch Brad asks me what I thought about Laffy Taffy; hold that thought I’ll explain at the end.   We returned to the woods after lunch in the same set up as the morning hunt. It was really slow up until about 5:00 pm when I saw my first deer, it was a small buck but I was glad to finally see something. A few minutes later, I see a doe over on the ridge that Brad is hunting on and I am watching to see if maybe he is going to get a shot off. Just then; I hear the sound that all hunters love to hear, approaching from behind me I hear leaves crunching as a big doe walks towards my stand. I turn in my tree stand to get in position thinking that it might offer a shot. Just as I get turned, I hear more of that beautiful sound; I had to lean out a little in order to see what was coming up the hill. I see bone and quickly make the decision that I am going to try and get a shot at this buck. The biggest problem that I had now was trying to get my bow, because the doe had gotten within ten yards of the base of my tree. I am afraid that any movement I make; she is going to bust me for sure. With careful movement I was able to get my bow in hand and attach my release to the string without spooking her. I now had to figure a way to draw my bow without spooking her. I had been focused on the doe this entire time and had no idea where the buck had stopped. I look over to check the bucks’ location, and sure enough he is standing broad side at roughly 20 yards. Now I don’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but a tree was hiding the bucks’ rack. I could tell that it was a pretty good one but I thought that it was one of the other bucks that I had seen that morning. Probably a good thing, I don’t know that I would have been able to remain as cool as I did if I had known that it was the drop tine standing there. I quickly revert my attention back to the doe that is even closer now; I was unsure of what to do, but I knew I had to take a chance in order to get a shot off at this buck. As I drew my bow the doe turned and quickly headed back on the path that she had came in on. I removed my eye from the peep to ensure that the angle and distance of the buck did not change. Luckily the buck was clueless as to why the doe had taken off and he stood there in the exact position allowing me to take the shot.   I let the arrow go, and watched intensely hoping that my shot placement was good. It appeared to be good as the buck reared up and also took off in the same direction as the doe. At dark I packed my gear and headed over to Brads’ ridge to tell him what had went down over on my ridge. After telling him, we decided to take our gear back to the truck and to return with a bigger light. After reentering the woods, I walked to the spot where I had shot the deer and found my arrow. The excitement starts to build; my arrow is covered and painted a nice shade of red. We walk down to the bottom of the hill where I had last heard the buck stop. We scanned across the woods with the flashlight, sure enough piled up just 20 yards in front of us is a giant buck. It wasn’t until then that we realized that I had taken the monster drop tine. You want to talk about a delayed reaction of buck fever; I was kind of in shock at first. My emotions kicked in, I felt a little bad that I had just taken that big dude down on the land that I was invited to hunt. But Brad quickly assured me that, this is what we were hunting for and he was happy that I was the one who harvested this animal and not someone down the road. Now you want to talk about a true friend, Brad is a true friend and it definitely showed on this day. Field dressing the deer was a story in itself, I was shaking so bad I was afraid that I was going to cut my hands off. I am looking forward to many more hunts with Brad in the years to come, as a matter of fact the 2007 season has already past and Brad and I had another successful season. I would have to write a part 2 to tell you that story though, so for now I will leave you with this.    I know that I talked a lot about my buddy Brad probably more so than I did the actual play by play of the on stand hunt. I was fortunate to walk away with a once in a lifetime deer, which was a very nice added bonus indeed. But I was more fortunate to have a friend who invited me to go hunting and share that experience of a lifetime with me.   Earlier in the story I mentioned Laffy Taffy, well here is why. When Brad first saw the deer step out of the thicket. He was playing a rap song (shake your laffy taffy) in his mind. It was stuck in his head.  His boy would always play it while riding in the truck. Therefore Brad named the buck Laffy Taffy, all of my other friends also know the deer by that name.  Thanks for letting me share my story, and thanks to all of my friends who shared the excitement with me and helped me get things done.   I want to thank Chris Robbins for sharing his story.  This is what it is all about.  Sharing good times with friends.  For these guys Laffy Taffy was a bonus.  I also want to thank Pro Staffer Mark Hughes for introducing Chris to Whitetailworld.