Parrish Brown of north-central Illinois has been a bowhunter for 26 years. Anyone who has bowhunted that long knows there are good years, bad years and some years when you just can't seem to get with the program. For Parrish the 2006 bow season seemed to fall into that third, unfortunate category.

Because of his job as a fireman, Parrish has always tried to stay in top physical condition. And with that in mind, he had found a new interest the year before. The fall of 2006 found him training for a triathlon. Due to Parrish's rigorous training schedule, he didn't find much time to get into the woods in October 2006. In fact, when early November rolled around, he had only been hunting three or four times.

On Sunday, Nov. 12, Parrish got off work at 7:00 a.m. He went home, went to church with his family and back home for lunch. He thought about going hunting, but knew he should probably spend the afternoon training instead.

While Parrish was debating which course of action to take, his dad, Mark, happened to call. During their conversation, Parrish said: "I'm getting kind of bored with hunting." His dad's response was: "You need to get in the woods. After all, it's Nov. 12, and I have a hunch you might kill a good buck today." Little did Parrish know how prophetic those words would turn out to be.

THE HUNT OF A LIFETIME
About 1:00 p.m. Parrish decided to go hunting. He left his house and drove the hour it takes to get to the 300 acres of private land he hunts in central Illinois. While walking into the woods he began to notice several fresh rubs and scrapes that had not been present the last time he had hunted. As he approached one of his favorite tree stands, he considered going to another stand in the "bottoms." However, the fresh rubs, scrapes, and large tracks finally convinced him to go instead to the nearby tree stand where he had taken some good bucks in the past.

By 2:30 Parrish was settled in his stand. His thoughts soon drifted back to an incident two years earlier when he had hit a large non-typical in the shoulder blade. He did not find the deer and later he saw the buck chasing does. Parrish's tree stand was located in a fairly deep ravine. The problem with this type of setup is that a hunter can climb 20 feet up the tree and still have deer on the adjacent hillsides that are level with his position. Knowing this, Parrish always had been extra careful when moving around in this stand.

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