Last year on the second weekend of the season I helped my cousin's husband guide some Army friends of his that had never hunted whitetail before.

I sat with one of them on a blind which overlooks a feeder on one side and a wheat field on the other.

He sat with the other in a blind that overlooks a creek bottom which acts as a main corridor in our area for deer moving up from the river into the ag fields.

The stands are about a 1/3 mile apart with some trees and hills between them.

The morning was foggy as all hell at first light and then around 9:30 the winds picked up to 15-20mph and very gusty.

I knew the deer were gonna be sitting tight so we left the stand and stalked a treeline along the edge of the wheat field where I'd had luck in previous years with windy conditions finding bedded deer.

We didn't make it 50 yards toward the treeline when a loud shot rang out back toward the creek bottom stand.

We'd already had enough of the wind so we headed down to help the other two guys load the deer they had presumably just shot.

When we got there the other two were still sitting the stand waiting on something to pass by.

Not only had they not shot a deer... They hadn't heard the gunshot that was damn close.

The usual accusations followed between friends about who was lying and why but I got the impression that they were telling the truth.

'Till this day I still don't know who fired that shot.

Anyone else experience something like this before?

Yes. Three of use we're in our stands on opening weekend about 18 years ago. There is a stand on my hill that no one was hunting. Heard a shot up there and figured someone decided to hunt the hill stand. Got back to camp and no one had been up there. We went to investigate and found where a man and a young boy (found their tracks) had crossed my fence about 300 yards, shot a deer, dragged it back to the fence and loaded on a 4 wheeler that was parked across the fence (not his land).

I immediately called the warden, he investigated and was able to determine who it was. He told me to never approach this fellow because he was bad news and would not think twice about shooting me if he felt cornered. The warden in fact, told me he was about to retire and was afraid of this fellow.

New warden comes along and arrests the guy for poaching and dealing in meth. He's been in and out of jail a bunch. In fact he's in jail now. Thank goodness for the new warden. This guy has been poaching in the county for many years

I know wind makes a huge difference in sound over distance. On a calm day you can clearly hear a 22 shot from any blind. With the wind blowing right you can hear an electric golf cart from 1/2 a mile. With the wind blowing away you may not hear the report of a 270 etc insert other rifle shot from any of the same locations.

Is he, per chance, originally from Deep East Texas.