Making Your Own Adventure:

Throwing Knives And Peeling Rubber
Snowy Days

By Lanny Benoit

Lanny Benoit’s memory tends to work a little differently than most hunters. While he is extremely grateful to be lucky enough to shoot “some deer” (his words), he also knows how to have a good time while he is hunting. That’s basically been the way it was for as long as he can remember. He’s also able to laugh at himself and the situations he sometimes finds himself in.

Even as a kid he had the uncanny ability to make his own adventure.

“I remember one morning in particular…must have been in the early 60s…there was a big snowstorm the night before, and the weather was still pretty bad. I was walking up the Long Trail looking for a big buck track but I hadn’t found anything, so I went to take a right turn to get back to the rig. I hadn’t gone very far when a decent buck stood up real close and looked right at me,” said Benoit.

“Now for some reason, I had it in my head that I always wanted to throw a knife at a buck, and I decided that was as good a time as any,” he said.

“Real slowly I reached down and took my knife. The buck just stood there looking at me so I cocked back my arm and threw it at him,” he said.

There was a little “thunk” as the knife struck the buck, but it hit but-first, and both the deer and the knife disappeared in the snow—neither the worse for wear.

“I was there for a while looking for my knife thinking ‘that was stupid.’  I didn’t lose the knife, but I lost my chance at the buck.” As Benoit relates the story, he takes a break from it and laughs at himself. “I haven’t done that since,” he adds with a chuckle

Later, as the day improved weather-wise Lanny finally crossed a track he liked.

“I looked down and there was a doe track and a big buck had stepped right in it,” he said. It didn’t take him long to catch up.

“The doe popped out first. She was looking back and about two seconds later out comes a good buck. I aimed behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger. All of a sudden the buck turned and ran right at me. I had the peep sight right on him as he was coming and I could see his feet moving but I decided to wait a second before shooting again. Just before he got to me he fell over.”

“Eventually, dad and Uncle Keith came along. The deer was a seven pointer with a big high, heavy rack. I had been dragging it for a while and they had seen my tracks in the snow as well as the antler marks. They thought it looked more like a Canadian deer than a Vermont buck,” he said. It tipped the scales at 230 pounds.

A Snowy Day

When telling the story about throwing the knife, Benoit remembers that he actually did lose his hunting knife in 1965, but that is not what he remembers the most about that day either. Like we mentioned before, it isn’t always getting the buck that stands out the most in Lanny’s memory.

One particular morning that year there was a huge snowstorm that dumped three and a half feet of snow on the ground. Lanny and his father were in Lanny’s 1956 Ford heading up the hill early one morning out of Hyde Park. The car was fish-tailing right and left having trouble getting good traction and couldn’t quite make the incline.

While looking for an edge to help get over the crest, Lanny spies an open garage door at the end of a flat driveway. Suddenly, inspiration strikes. The floor of the empty garage is dry and clean.

“I told dad that if I back into that garage and come out fast than I think we can get some momentum and make it over the hill,” he said. “Dad didn’t say too much.”

“So we backed into the garage. I remember glancing over at dad and he was sitting there looking down with his hand cupped over his eyes not saying anything, but he wanted to go deer hunting as badly as I did.”

 The Ford revved up and jumped out of the garage when Benoit stepped on the pedal. The tires started spinning and gravel was flying. Benoit looked in his rear-view mirror half expecting to see a woman come running out of the house shaking a rolling pin in her hand.

“Can you imagine the people sitting in the house…” says Lanny with a grin. “They must have thought we stole something…”

At the end of the day it was all worth it though. Even though Lanny lost his knife, they shot a big 10 pointer behind Belvedere Pond.

“To this day every time I drive by that house I think of that morning and laugh,” he said.

Next Month: “Who do you think you are…Lanny Benoit?”

The Benoit Brothers newly released third video “Hunt Smarter Not Harder” is available, as well as their other books and videos, on their website at Benoitsbigbucks.com or by calling 1-888-Benoits.