On Saturday, November 15, 1958, the first day of the Wisconsin sixteen-day gun deer season for that year, Merle wrote in the shack log:
A large crafty doe, and a lightning fast 8 point buck, attempted to charge by Merle at 100 yards, but he, also, with a lightning fast draw, dropped each with a single bullet. This skirmish was at 9:15 a.m. near “The Birch.” They were both extremely difficult shots thru thick brush with both deer at high speed. A medal of merit is certainly due Merle for his skill used today.
This was an unusual deer season for the Jolly Boys, because the state had extended the deer season from nine to sixteen days in northern Wisconsin. It was also an unusual year for weather, as the temperature climbed into the high fifties during the day. There was no snow, and the woods were very noisy. The Jolly Boys once again had two party tags, and the remaining party tag was filled with a doe the first Wednesday of the season. The Jolly Boys decided that a sixteen-day deer hunt was simply too long. As a result, they hunted for the first nine days of the season and didn’t return to hunt for that final week. For the most part, the attempt at a sixteen-day season was a bust.
I was fourteen years old that deer season. I remember that although I was allowed to hunt with a rifle, I stuck pretty close to my dad, learning the area around the hunting shack and trying to keep myself from getting lost. I was finally able to experience shack life and to spend a few nights in camp observing the poker games. I was amazed at how much fun my dad and the other Jolly Boys had up there. I quickly came to realize that deer hunting was about much more than the actual deer hunt. The biggest part of the hunt revolved around being in the woods and hunting out of a hunting shack. Getting a deer was almost secondary.