Near Death-Deer Experience

Near Death- Deer Experience
by Brodie Swisher

Aside from his family and faith, Jeremy Taylor has few things that occupy his mind like chasing elk and deer when the season rolls around each year. This season has already proved to be a unique season for Jeremy, to say the least. Most any hunt presents its fair share of challenges and obstacles to overcome in order to find success. On this day however, Jeremy found that this particular hunt brought trials and a brush with death unlike any hunt he’s yet to experience. Fortunately, he was able to walk away from the experience and look back to truly see the mighty hand of God watching over him.

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Vehicle trouble nearly kept me from this hunting trip, and it also nearly took my life on our return, says Taylor. We were hauling hay to a rancher where we hunt but the truck was overheating and we were pulling over every 20 minutes to cool the engine. At our fourth stop, we decided it just wasn’t going to work. A rancher training a horse in a corral next to the road needed hay and we needed to get rid of the 8 ton on our trailer so we could get hunting. Sure enough, out came the rancher’s checkbook and he bought the hay! He even agreed to keep our trailer for a few days! Our 6 hour trip took 10, but we finally made it just hours before dawn. We slept for a couple hours and headed up the mountain in search of elk. After a couple unfruitful setups, we started for a new area. Suddenly I realized there was a buck bedded in the middle of a meadow right in front of us.

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My hunting partner Jeff decided to make the stalk and I swung around to cover a possible escape route. I heard an arrow buzz through the morning air but the buck only trotted a few yards towards me, looking back where the sound came from. I ranged him at 58 and drew my bow. The arrow made contact and the buck ran the opposite direction. We waited for a couple hours by hunting the elk drainage we were headed for and then returned to find my buck. We boned him out and stuffed him in my badlands day pack and returned to our camp. After a couple more days of hunting elk without success, we headed home. We were driving along the interstate at 75 mph, reliving the hunt on our cell phones, when the rear end of the truck slammed to the ground. I threw my phone down and wrestled the steering wheel, managing to get us safely to the side of the road. The left rear wheel had come off the truck and passed us, rolling 800 yards down the highway! Eight hours and one tow-truck ride later, we finally made it home. God truly provided and protected us on this hunt. Don’t set foot in the woods this fall without asking God for His provision and protection!

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