I have never seen the following story in print. I heard Tommy Oaks tell it several years ago. It goes something like this.

My Uncle Charlie was one of the best hunters in these parts. Everybody knew it, even Uncle Charlie. He was just a little bit cocky about his hunting ability. He used to tell everybody that he only took 3 bullets with him whenever he went into the woods. Anything more than that was just extra weight to carry around. That’s what he used to say.

I used to beg Uncle Charlie to take me hunting with him. Finally, the Thanksgiving that I was 12, he let me go. He even let me carry the gun. I just knew that we were going to come back with all kinds of meat for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We walked and we walked, and suddenly, Uncle Charlie stopped me and pointed to a deer. He said, “You’ve got a good angle on it. Go ahead and shoot it.”

Taking aim, I got so nervous I couldn’t hold the gun steady. I pulled the trigger, but I reckon I missed the deer by at least 10 feet, and he scampered away.

When I turned to look at Uncle Charlie, he was holding up 2 fingers. I knew what that meant. We only had 2 bullets left.

We walked deeper into the woods, until Uncle Charlie stopped me again. He pointed out another deer, and told me to take my best shot. Again, I got so nervous that the gun shook up and down in my hands. I must have missed that deer by 20 feet, and he got away too.

Handing the gun to Uncle Charlie, I slinked along behind him, feeling like a total failure. We only had one bullet left, and I was afraid that we wouldn’t have any wild game at all on our Thanksgiving table.

We walked further into the woods and then, suddenly, Uncle Charlie stopped at the edge of a clearing. He had obviously spotted something. Peering around him to the left, I saw a huge buck deer that had not yet seen us. Looking around him to the right, I saw an angry bear that had seen us!

What would Uncle Charlie do with the one remaining bullet? Would he shoot the deer for the meat, or would he shoot the bear to protect us?

It turned out that he didn’t shoot either one of them. Instead, he took out his hunting knife and threw it with all of his might. But he didn’t throw it at the deer. He didn’t throw it at the bear either. He stuck the knife in a tree about halfway between the deer and the bear.

Then he raised his gun to shoot. But he didn’t shoot the deer. He didn’t shoot the bear either. Uncle Charlie shot the blade of the hunting knife! Half of the bullet went to the left and killed the deer! The other half went to the right and killed the bear!

And that’s not all! The force of the bullet caused the knife to spin up into the air, where it killed and dressed two turkeys that were roosting in the tree and 6 ducks that happened to be flying overhead. When it came back to the earth, the knife landed in a stream, where it killed and filleted 6 huge catfish and 4 nice bass.

It turned out to be the best Thanksgiving we ever had!

“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”—2 Peter 1:16.