First Deer, First Buck
By Erin Soucek, 14 years old
On Opening Morning of deer hunting there I was with my mom right beside me with my with my uncle’s SKS in the two person tree stand. This was my second year hunting and I haven’t seen a deer within range yet! We are hunting north of Mercer, Wisconsin
My mom and I were just looking around, waiting and hoping for something to come beside the red squirrels. My mom is scanning the woods to the right and I am looking straight ahead and all of a sudden at 9:20 am, I see a deer walking towards us. I whispered to my mom, “I see a deer!” “Where?” she whispers back. She couldn’t see the deer from her angle. Right there and then the deer came out from the trees. It was a buck!
My mom told me to move slowly and get ready to shoot. Bang! one shot at 75 yards and he took off. He ran about 10 yards and disappeared behind some pines. We couldn’t see him anymore!
Mom told me we had to wait for about 20 minutes before we could go look for him. I started shaking with excitement. We had a plan. I was to unload and climb down and then reload. Then my mom would do the same, so we were ready for him if he jumped up and ran off. I thought I had a good shot and I did very well at the shooting range the week before, but wasn’t sure. Then, I was to watch as mom walked around the side.
We still did not see him. We walked over to where we last saw him disappear behind the pines. There he was lying on the ground, not moving, a nice spiker, one shot through the heart and lungs.
Mom showed me how to gut him and we pulled him back to our tree stand. My uncles and brother helped us drag him out of the woods that night after closing.
I was the only one at camp that got a deer on opening day. Girl’s rule! Mom and I are the only girls at camp. I was very happy and excited to finally get my first deer and it was a buck! I will always remember that day!
I couldn’t have done it without my uncles and my mom!
Thank you to everyone that helped me!