By SCOTT LINDSEY / Outdoors WriterI swear that this will be the very last story on deer hunting until next October. Sunday was the very last day of the 2008-2009 deer season, including bow and black powder. There is absolutely no way I will mention deer again for several months.

I know you are as happy about this as I am. If this went on for another week, I would call down to Bay Medical Center and reserve a room.

In October, when all this craziness starts, I’m not mentally ready to stop fishing and turn to hunting. It’s really too hot in October to hunt anyway. The first season is bow season and I don’t bow hunt, so someone is going to get a two-week head start on me before I know it.

I think if you are adept at shooting a bow, you have a serious advantage over other hunters because deer for the most part have been left alone for nine months and aren’t accustomed to seeing people in the woods. That enables a hunter to do things they can’t do in December and during the later months and get away with.

The reason I don’t take up bow hunting is that I can’t draw back a bow. My shoulders are too weak from past operations, or at least that’s what I tell people. Maybe I’m just not strong enough to draw back a bow.

There is a legal limit on the amount of pressure a hunting bow can maintain and still be legal. I believe it’s about 30something pounds. If you are strong enough you could own a bow that had more than 80 pounds of pull pressure, but that isn’t necessary. Most men’s bows will be in the 50- to 60-pound range, way too much for me, so I forgo the early bow season for obvious reasons.

Next comes black-powder season. This is intended to allow a hunter to use an antique weapon the likes of which you would see Davy Crocket or Daniel Boon use in movies. When this law first came into effect, these antique rifles were the only ones a hunter could buy. Over the years they have changed to a more modern weapon.

The black-powder season is when I usually start showing some interest in deer hunting. I may not be like the average deer hunter because going out and killing a deer is not top propriety. Like everyone else, I would like to get one of those deer you see in some outdoors magazine. But even more, I simply like getting away from the beach and being either alone or with a few select friends.

By the time general gun season comes in, I’m into it. Every waking hour is used on trying to figure where I should hunt and come Friday I’ve made 100 phone calls to people on where they hunted last week and where they are going to hunt this week.

This goes on until general gun season runs out in the middle of February and during the next 10 days we are allowed to hunt with black powder or with a bow. I ended general gun season by missing one of the largest bucks I have seen in a long time. It would have been great to end the gun season with a trophy deer, but it was not to be.

Now comes March 1 and it’s either do it today or wait until October. Sunday morning wasn’t exactly the best of days to hunt, but it was the last day. The wind was blowing about 30 mph, and it was cold and getting colder.

After I had sat for two hours thinking about the cold, I saw a doe acting very strangely. She would run for a distance and then turn around and run back. It turned out she didn’t have one buck on her trail, but she had three bucks on her trail. It was the scenario every hunter wishes for.

I picked out the biggest buck and aimed and took my time. When the cloud of smoke drifted away I expected to see the biggest buck in the group piled up like a load of laundry. Instead he was just standing there looking at me.

The bucks continued to peruse the doe like nothing had happened. I expect the FWC will have a banquet and award me a medal for the new-found conservation spirit I’ve adopted.

Did I mention turkey season starts this month?