Morning sighting in the Lukachukai Mountains of northeast Arizona witnessed in Apache County, Arizona

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It was my first day of the 1981 Navajo deer season. I have hunted these Lukachukai mountains for deer through my teenage years with brother T., uncle DJ, and cousins. I was twenty years old then. It was about 7 A.M., November 7, 1981 when our hunting crew reached the top of the mountain, southwest of Cove, Arizona. The weather was cold with shifting fog, the ground was frozen from the drizzle, the night before. Two cousins and I were to walk the upper mountain ridge that arced to the northwest. I packed my day pack and loaded my rifle. By then my cousins had already walked ahead of me, on a well used trail, which rounded a hill to a saddle which splits the mountain range. I wanted to catch up with them, so instead of following the trail, I climbed up the hill and over. As I reached the top and began to go down the other side I stop and yelled my cousins name's to locate them. I first heard crashing of oak brush, below me 40 to 50 yards to my left. I could not believe what I...