This Photo was taken as the sun went down.  The deer Gary had dropped is circled on the lower left with the mountain lion that drug it away on the right side near the cedar. (Outdoorsmen Productions Video/Photo)

  I’ve been very fortunate to make my living as an outdoor communicator, where every week, I produce my syndicated “Of the Outdoors” columns, produce my “Outdoorsmen Adventures” television series and do a weekly radio show and in order to do this, I spend a lot of time on the water and in the wood hunting and fishing.  

  When you spend a lot of the year in Canada, the upper Midwest and Mexico, almost anything can happen.

   I had accepted an opportunity to fly on a private jet with exhibition shooter, Tom Knapp to film a dove hunt.

  That afternoon, we had a pretty decent shoot, hunting the three different varieties of doves found in Mexico.

  Our plan was to hunt that afternoon and then try another location, the hunt was a good one as we tried our best to hit these diving, dodging little birds.

 On this trip we were set up in a couple of haciendas along the Sea of Cortés, between these there was another place with a concrete pad to launch boats.

  About the time, my cameraman and I were going to sleep, we heard a helicopter, boat motors and gun fire, for a minute, I wasn’t sure if I was in Mexico or back in Viet Nam.

  This went on for over an hour and with the sun came up, we went to our other Hacienda to learn what all the commotion was about.

  As we passed the boat landing, I noticed there was a pile of several large boxes there and when we got to Tom’s Hacienda, we learned what had gone on that night.

  The boxes on the landing were drugs, and all the commotion the night before was one of the largest drug raids in Mexico by the DEA, Mexican police and other Law enforcement officials.

  The gun fire heard, came from the hacienda in between t ours, where the drug dealers were in, and several law- enforcement boats, a helicopter and several military vehicles.

  The DEA boat were trying to force the drug boat to shore, with the helicopters search lights, lighting up the area to prevent any escapes.

  After a quick breakfast, we loaded up in two Suburban’s, heading out for another day of shooting.

  We’d gone no more than a mile, when   an armored military vehicle, checking all vehicle’s coming from the west, to arrest those that had escaped.

  Thy searched our vehicles, finding our weapons and ammunition, pulled us over and began questioning us.

   We explained that we were filming a dove hunt, when the Mexican official, got in our drivers face’ indicated that because some of the drug dealers weren’t captured, any shooting would attract law enforcement officials thinking it was the escapees.

  This brought our trip to a screeching halt, where we hung around the Hacienda until our pilots returned.

  On another occasion, we filmed a hunt near Verdigre Nebraska and not having much luck, we set up in a shack looking over the bottom ground.

  As daylight began to fade, we were at that point, it looked like this filming trip wasn’t going to happen, when we spotted a good mule deer near the trees.

  With the camera rolling, I put the deer down and as I walked to my vehicle, my cameraman said, the deer was gone.

  We grabbed our flashlights and began to scour the area in the fading light, hoping it had gone into the trees and laid down.

  After spending a lot of time stumbling around in the dark, working our way through the trees, we decided to head back to camp to view the footage.

  What we saw, was darn scary, as the deer was on the ground when a mountain lion appeared, with both the deer and the lion disappearing.

The next morning, we found drag marks where the lion drug the mule deer onto another individual’s land and with that ended another of the bazaar things we encountered while filming in the outdoors.

   Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb, originally from Watertown S.D. is a former tournament angler, fishing & hunting guide, an award-winning writer, producer, photographer, broadcaster and was inducted into the “National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame” in 2017. If you’re looking for more outdoor information, check out www.GaryHowey’soutdoors.com , and www.outdoorsmenadventures.com, with more information on these Facebook pages, Gary Howey, Gary E Howey, Outdoor Adventure Radio, Team Outdoorsmen Productions.