My first deer - 11/23/13
By Ami Pavletich
I have been a deer hunter for 5 years and had never once even seen a deer while hunting. After last year, my Dad said we’ll try a new spot next year. Opening day this year would be in hunting public land in Washington County.
Opening morning was 18 degrees, windy and cold. We’d be using a TC muzzleloader between us and I was up first. Our walk from the parking lot to the stand would be almost a mile. Even though the sun was coming up there was an unpleasant chill in the air that caused me to focus more on keeping warm than about what was going on around you.
We were sitting 45 minutes before shooting opened next to a pond with a grove of cedars and pines 20 yards in front of us. We heard one deer soon as we sat down in the dark. 10 minutes after shooting opened. My Dad said, “I hear one, do you see it”? The deer was 25 yards walking up the trail towards us with the wind. I took the safety off and looked through the scope. The deer kept coming into the woods on a leisurely little stroll while I got my sight trained on him. When he was but 25 yards away my Dad made some noise which had him stop in his tracks.
This ended up being good for me since he was in positioned for a perfect shot and with that I took my opportunity to shoot. My aim seemed to be less than straight and true for the deer jumped into the air, but my Dad said, “You got him”! The buck kicked back its legs in an odd fashion and hit the ground running but much to my surprise it stopped after running no more than 20 yards. As it stood there staring at us my Dad tried to reload the gun, dropping a few speed loaders in the excitement made quite a bit of noise but still the deer would not budge.
After a little time had passed the deer started to sway back and forth until. I said to my Dad “the deer is wobbling’. All of a sudden, it flopped over on its side. We hugged and laughed but still waited a little while before walking over. Finally we walked over to check out my deer.
It was a basket 8 point. We took lots of pictures and called Mom right away. Dad was texting his friends telling them about my first deer. Next we tagged, gutted the deer and dragged it out to the nearest road. Dad went and got the truck and we loaded him up and went to the bar where we registered the deer. They took my picture and I’m up on the board.
We went out for lunch. At around 2 we were back in the woods. It was my Dad’s turn to shoot. We heard one deer in the afternoon but didn’t get a shot. I actually took a good nap.
After five years I finally got to register my first deer. I can’t wait until next year!