Hunting in the Everglades

 West of Pompano, highway 441 and South of the Wiles road, there lies a huge expanse of swamp-land that was covered with from 6 to 12 inches of water at most any given time. Portions of this land was owned by The Blount family, the Remsberg family and by H.L. (Bud) Lyons.

This land had access from Wiles road on the East side and from the everglades South of the Hillsboro canal. There was a sizable herd of game, deer, hogs and turkeys in this area and it was open to hunting except the part that was posted and it was well marked and in some instances, fenced.

 I first encountered RD ( Plumber) Smith in these swamps one day while slogging through the mud and water on foot while hunting in this area. First, R.D. was a neighbor of mine and he was also a businessman in Pompano and he loved the outdoors and hunting, He would drive his four wheel vehicle all the way to Alaska over the Alcan highway every few years to hunt and fish, carrying along a freezer and portable generator to keep the meat frozen as he drove the thousands of miles back to Pompano.

R.D, pulled up to me and we exchanged pleasantries, He knew me and I him, he asked if I had a vehicle some place and I answered ”no”, I parked on the Wiles road and I was on foot as I had done many times while hunting in this area.Our conversation turned to hunting and where was a good place to find deer and I remarked that I was on my way out and was through hunting for the day, He said, ”get on my buggy and I will take you to your car”.

On the way to my car he asked if I came here very often and replied not to often as it was hard hunting, slogging through the mud and water and there were lots of water moccasins and one had to watch where every step was made. He said that he usually had someone go with him because he didn’t like hunting alone, he had dogs but without someone with him, he left them home.

That brought up his next question, would I care to go with him on his buggy and his dogs sometimes, I readily agreed to that and he proposed that we meet at his house the next Saturday about 4 AM and we would return with his dogs and hunt. RD was in the appliance, plumbing and heating business, He also had a farming operation in Palm Beach County. During WW II, he had the plumbing and heating building contracts for the USAAF training airfield at Boca Raton, Fl. So RD had the means to be as independent as he wanted to be and he enjoyed the outdoors. RD had arrived in South Florida sometime in the late 1920s from North Carolina and had enough business acumen to set himself up in business and been very successful.

The next Saturday morning at 4 AM I walked the three blocks from my house to his and he was ready to go, There was two other people going also, One was W.R. ( Dub) Henderson and my childhood friend, Robert Mitchell. The dogs were in a cage in the back of the buggy, Dub was going to transport the buggy on a trailer to the hunting area (the tower on the buggy had hinges so it could be folded over to reduce the height for transporting.)

RD loaded the guns and other equipment in his pickup truck and he would drive it out to the edge of the hunt area and leave it there. Robert and I rode in the cab with him because it was in November and was quite chilly. Arriving at the place we would board the buggy, we off loaded our equipment placing the guns up on the tower that was constructed on top of the buggy (a WW II Jeep) there was room for three people in the tower and there a was a large tractor innertube that was placed around the inside of the cage of the elevated platform as a hedge against injury while being bounced around going through the swamps.

RD had installed huge aircraft tires on the jeep so it could travel through the mud and water, as long as the water was not more than three feet deep, we were not liable to drown out the Jeep. We set out to the West in the buggy just as dawn was breaking and that is the best part of the day for me when going hunting, the swamps and hammocks started to come alive, the huge long billed cranes and pond birds were rising off their roost and heading out for their daily food hunts. The birds were calling to each other and there was a Mirada of noise and sounds as the swamps came alive and the wild things were lustly broadcasting their arrival of a new day to the world.

We were now deep enough into the swamps to turn the dogs loose, RD said we could let them loose and follow until they struck a trail or we could keep them locked up and drive around until maybe we spotted a deer then we would release them. We opted to release the dogs and follow them because they could possibly jump a deer that was lying down or hiding.

We unlimbered our guns, Dub would drive and we would be his eyes because the grass was higher than his windshield in places and we could see much further and would relay our course and any obstacles to him. I had brought along a Japanese 1938 model rifle cal .25 that I had brought home from Japan after the war when I was in the US Navy and I had obtained sporting ammunition for it and had bore sighted it so that is was accurate up to a distance of 300 yards, RD was using a .44 cal semi-automatic Remington and Robert was using a Winchester 30-30 cal, lever action rifle. Dub had a shotgun but he probably would not be in on any deer shooting from the drivers seat.

RD had installed gun racks on the inner ring of the cage up top so when traveling over rough ground, they would be held securely and out of the way .We had already removed the guns from the racks, loaded them, checked the safeties and now we were ready if we jumped a deer..

Traveling through the mud,water and weeds, we had to watch very carefully for stumps, logs, holes or ditches, because we were traveling along a good clip probable 20-25 MPH and this was fast for the terrain we were in and being up in the tower, about 15 feet above the jeep, every swing and sway of the jeep was multiplied where we were riding and at times it seemed as if we might turn over, and if Dub made a quick turn for any reason, we would have.

Suddenly, as it always seemed to happen, a deer jumped up about a hundred yards ahead of us and was running straightway at full speed. RD told Dub to step on the gas and close the distance, meanwhile, the dogs had gotten the scent of the deer and were now running and barking although they could not see the deer they knew where it was and where it was heading.

RD had become impatient and without warning, he fired at the running deer and missed. Robert shouted not shoot, that it was a doe but RD had already committed and fired again and down went the deer, his bullet had hit her. Dub stopped the jeep and RD said to get to the downed deer before the dogs got to her because they might ruin some parts of the deer.

Robert was the first to get to the deer and pulled one of the dogs off , RD grabbed the other one. The deer was struggling to get up and RD shouted for Robert to cut her throat. Robert didn’t have a knife but I had a sheath knife on my belt and I told Robert to put his foot on her neck because she had just been nicked on the top of her neck, only stunned and was now coming alive.

Robert put his foot on her neck, I bent over with my knife ready to do her in and when my knife touched her throat, she gave a mighty kick with her hind leg and struck my hand that was holding the knife so hard the knife went flying and her hoof cut into the top of my hand and the pain was so intense that I could hardly speak much less yell . The deer jumped up and began running , RD shouted, “shoot her, shes getting away.”

It was then we came to the realization that in our haste to get to the downed deer, all four of us had left our guns on the buggy and were a good 50 feet away and the deer was now out of sight with the dogs in hot pursuit while we were left standing unarmed and feeling very foolish. (Score deer 1 us 0)

We stood around not saying anything for a few minutes, I was nursing my bruised, cut hand and it was really beginning to hurt. Robert remarked that it was probable a good thing the deer escaped because it was a doe , she was only grazed and we may have been arrested for killing her.

We spent the next two hours waiting for the return of the dogs. They would track the deer until finally they would give up and back track to where they left from. We were lucky that weren’t gone all day, had they not returned by dusk, we would have left a shirt or some article of clothing, gone home and returned the next day and usually the dog or dogs would be lying there waiting.

Giving the dogs a breathing and rest break, we decided to continue on with our hunt although my hand was swollen and really hurting, I was not in favor of quitting as yet. We climbed onto the buggy and started off again, this time letting the dogs roam ahead, suddenly a large buck jumped up ahead of the dogs and was running off to our right in a wide circle. The dogs got the scent and began barking and following his scent, the grass was too high for them to see but they knew where he was.

“Dub” was doing a good job following our directions when suddenly, disaster struck!. The jeep hit a small ditch that had grass growing in it, The jeep nosed down and as it came on through, the back wheels went into it and the jeep came off the ground in a huge whipping motion. RD, Robert and myself standing in the cage in the tower 15 feet in the air and were subjected to a violet forward then backwards lashing as the jeep went through the ditch doing about 30 miles per hour. RD was hurled violently forward then backwards then forward again , his momentum carried him into the innertube rib of the cage and then he was violently hurled over the top of the cage out of it and the gun he was holding flew off into the water and he landed on his back on the hood of the still moving jeep having completed a complete somersault within a height of 15 ft.

Robert and I fared a little better than RD, I was also subjected to the same motions as was Robert and RD.. My forward motion was stopped by the pipe cage with the innertube covered rib (it was for just such accidents as we had just been subjected to) . My forward motion stopped with the latch of the gun rack that protruded about 5 inches into the innercircle embedded about an inch into the upper thigh of my right leg.

This was a major injury but “Dub” was the one that had the most luck in this incident. I was holding my Japanese rifle when we hit the ditch, when the jeep came to a stop, I was hanging half in and half out of the cage up top and my rifle was in my right hand and I was looking straight down on top of Dubs head and my rifle was hanging down about two feet pointing at the top of his head and I was holding it by my finger which was on the trigger. If I would have had the safety catch off then I would have probably shot Dub squarely in the top of the head..

The Japanese rifle I was using did not have a safety latch as most rifles, this was a military rifle and it had a “palm safety. by that I mean it was a round knurled plate about one and a quarter inch in diameter on the back of the receiver and was activated by the palm of the hand, Placing the palm on the plate pushing and twisting to the right set it on safe, and going with the same motion to the left took the safety off.

Realizing just how close I had been to shooting Dub made me weak plus the pain from my leg and also my hand. Robert fared better than RD and myself. he was only whipped around and had his gun dunked in the muddy water.

Dub was uninjured but visible shaken up especially when he saw my rifle looking down on his skull. RD had hurt his back and arm but was able to climb into the seat of the jeep and told Dub to pick up the dogs because we were going home. RD left the imprint of his body in the 3/4 galvanized pipe the jeep tower was made of .

This ended my first and last hunt with RD Smith, not that it was anything of his doing but anytime one is out in the swamps with guns and buggies and dogs and people then disaster could strike suddenly and with no warning whatsoever. The cost to me, other than the cut hand and the punctured leg was the smashing of my 7+50 power binoculars.

I considered all of us very lucky that we were not injured any more than we were. (score Deer 2 us 0)