DRIVING BLIND; Oh deer, here come the humans again.(News)

Byline: WILLIAM JEANES

Those of you who recoil, pun intended, at turning Bambi and Thumper into precious memories, just turn the page. The rest of you can read on and learn about Texan Douglas Maund's modified Ford F-350.

In the truck's bed, you see a Model HL-500 portable deer stand built by Hy-Lift Hunting Blinds of Kennedale, Texas, a Fort Worth suburb. It works on the same principle as the tower on a sport-fishing boat. The camouflaged contraption is street legal and costs about $20,000-BYO truck.

"One of my neighbors has a much fancier rig that probably cost $100,000,'' says Maund, an Austin mega-dealer, "but his included the truck.''

On Maund's 3M Ranch, south of Carrizo Springs in Dimmit County, Texas, huge stands of mesquite trees hamper a deer hunter's long- or even medium-range visibility. Using the battery-powered hydraulic lift that raises the rear platform, four hunters can rise majestically to a height of 28 feet. From that altitude, in the vast flatness of South Texas, you can see nearly to the Yucatan.

With platform raised, the elevated driver has every control needed to operate the truck: starter, steering, brakes, accelerator, lights and beverage cooler. Sight a herd of deer, and you can motor carefully toward it at a height you're comfortable with. Sissies can retreat to the interior of the F-350, but what fun would that be?

Doug Harrison and his brothers, Brad and Casey, have been building Hy-Lift shooting platforms since ...