I Knew This Ole Boy

We got word yesterday that long time friend John Purcell had crossed over the Great Divide. When I shared the news with John Taffin he replied "There are too many empty saddles!"

This morning John Killebrew shared this story with me:

In memory of John Purcell, I will start off this hunting story with "I Knew This Ole Boy ..." (which is how John Purcell started a lot of his stories.)

Sitting in my blind this morning thinking about fellow Shootist John Purcell and all his stories. The moon was bright enough to read a newspaper at 0530, the wind was still, and the temperature was in the low 40s. Nothing stirring at daybreak, which is unusual. About 0630 a very small short-nose deer wandered out - probably looking for his mama. By 0700, having seen nothing else, I began to think of things that I should be working on in the shop. Decided at 0715 that I was packing it in at 0730. Then, at 0728, a deer traversed the range at about 150yds moving like the typical adult buck - he obviously had things to do and places to go - so I put the Leica binos on him. Bah... big body, maybe an 8pt. Still... let us observe through the riflescope. Yep, looks to be an eight, but not real tall.... then he turned his head and looked my direction. BOOOM!

"I knew this ole boy..."

John said "I had a few pics of that buck on game cameras, but none that were conclusive about what was going on with his antlers. So, when he turned and looked at me, I heard "I knew this ole boy" in my head and pulled the trigger."

A fitting tribute to John Purcell.