Cold Success

Water Valley, MS> It was the day after Christmas and was the coldest day that I can remember hunting. When we got up at 4:30AM the temp was 5 below zero and I have no idea how bad the wind chill was. Needless to say it was some kind of cold as we joked and drank coffee in the kitchen. We had our stands picked and got ready. Dad finally decided we were all crazy and he wasn't mad enough at the deer to go out there. Trent, Paul, James and myself left. We were wearing every piece of hunting attire we owned.
I hoped I could make it till 9:00AM as I broke the ice off the spikes going up the tree. I found later that Paul could not get in his stand for the ice. Everytime you put your unprotected hand out, it seemed to freeze instantly.
An hour later, I was completely frozen and heard the deer coming. I turned, pulled my hands out of my muff, (they instantly froze to the gun) and aimed. I saw horns, moved the scope down and pulled the trigger. BLAM! The deer jumped to the side about 20 feet and stopped. I threw another shell in and waited a sec for it to fall. The deer looked around. I figured I had better shoot it in the neck. BLAM! Things were heating up fast! The deer had to be dead. It looked around. Oh! Crap! I threw another shell in and took a deep breath. BLAM! The deer fell. It's gross but I had to warm my hands inside the deer to field dress it. When I got back to the house, I found that Paul and James had shot their deer also. 3 deer on a terribly cold day. All were about the same size, which led to much bragging and joking around the fire.
That night we took the deer inside and hung them in the shower, it was so cold. A great pic and fond memory.