We all do some things that we like whether it makes sense or not.

One thing that I get to do is travel over most all of southern Georgia at least once a month and some months two times. So not much happens that I don’t hear about, knowing all of the folks that I do over the southern region of Georgia. It is very easy to keep up with what is happening on the fishing scene during the spring and summer and what is happening on the hunting scene during the fall and winter.

The first part of this week, I traveled up U.S. 27 to Columbus stopping at all of the smaller towns and gathering information about what had been going on the previous week. You know Cuthbert is in Randolph County, which is known as a pretty good place to deer hunt and also kill a deer. Like many older towns, Cuthbert has a square in the middle of downtown and traffic goes around it in a one-way fashion. Now this is in the very middle of the town, so even in Cuthbert and Randolph County with all of its deer, one wouldn’t expect to see a deer in that square. It is like a park so one would expect a wild animal to be attracted to it if said wild animal found itself in downtown Cuthbert.

On the northeast side of the square is Hixon Hardware and a convenience and sporting goods store connected together with large doorways between the two stores, both stores being owned by the Hixon family. Upon arrival at the store I find that the glass is broken in the front of the hardware store and then see that more glass is broken at the front of the sporting goods store. This is not the strangest thing I have ever seen, but it is not finished yet. Around mid morning a spike buck crossed the square and took a bee line on the hardware store, jumped through the front glass and found himself in the electrical department. Not liking the choices, he moved on over to the sporting goods side and found many things that he had seen, smelled or heard in the wild. With all of the different scents within the confines of the building, I am sure he got really confused.

The guy behind the sporting goods counter thought it was a big dog as he was looking at him, or looking at pieces of him, through the fixtures forming the aisles. When those aisles funneled that deer right on down to and behind the counter he wished he had somewhere to go. There is a big minnow tank with a big Plexiglas window behind it. He might have been able to knock the Plexiglas loose and escape out the back, but his jump was partially into a wooden support and not enough in the window. So he fell into the minnow tank. Water was going everywhere and so was the feet of the deer. It didn’t take long to right himself and make a quicker trip to the front of the store and out through another piece of glass.

The deer was a spike with the two horns about eight or 10 inches long. I have seen and heard of smaller wild animals coming in a open door of a business in town, but this is the first time I have seen evidence of a grown deer doing something like this. The rascal passed right by a display of orange vests and didn’t even try to take one with him. You know that they are for safety.

You have just a few days to finalize your plans for your hunts over the Thanksgiving holidays. Most probably you will have relatives in for the food and they will want to deer hunt or go on a dove shoot. Makes places for everyone and remember that safety is the No. 1 priority. We need you around for Christmas as well as the New Year. Hopefully gas will be down some more by then.