My first bow hunting outing of the Missouri bow season was not supposed to be a serious hunt. It was the first weekend of bow season, it was 80 degrees, I had a friend coming down to hunt who had never been bow hunting before, and we would be hunting over a food plot that never grew. The setup was not ideal for trophy buck hunting by any means, but we were looking to have a good time, and a pleasant introduction to bow hunting. My friend Katie had just started shooting a bow with her husband and was interested in learning to bow hunt so we set out that evening to see what we could see.

It was 5:00pm when we began to head for the stand. I had chosen a spot behind my house that was an easy walk, as with the heat, a hard trip would have been miserable. As we entered the woods we jumped a deer that was bedded near a pond and we watched together as it flagged away through the woods.

"They are not as spooky this time of year, maybe we will get to see that one again tonight," I told Katie.

As we reached the stand, Katie began to get anxious. This was the first time she had seen an archery tree stand, let alone attempted to climb into one. My husband had put two Gorilla tree stands back to back in a tree about 16 feet high. The original idea was to have two hunters or a hunter and a cameraman in the tree. It made a perfect place for us to sit and be able to discuss what was happening.

The tree steps had been put in with the intention of a youth hunter using the stand so they were fairly close together, but one still had to swing around the tree a bit to get into the stands. I went first, climbing into my stand and strapping myself to the tree. Katie tied the bows to a rope and I pulled them up, along with our other equipment. She had brought her bow along just in case she got a shot at a squirrel. Next it was her turn to climb up. She was a little nervous as she slowly made her way up the tree; I gave her quiet directions as to where to step next and which branches to grab. With unsure hands she cautiously crawled into her stand. I helped her strap her harness around the tree and get sat down. This made her feel much more comfortable, and she soon settled in for the evening.

From the stand we surveyed the area and I explained which direction deer may come from and why. Katie got out her video camera in case she saw anything she wanted to get on tape. We sat for about an hour watching squirrels and discussing a potpourri of topics. The woods were loud with squirrels running and jumping from limb to limb, knocking leaves and acorns to the ground, crashing through the branches on their way down. Doves were swooping in and out of the barren food plot, eating the seeds that were left on top. The rain had washed all the seeds that we had so painstakingly plowed, up to the top. A rainless month had left a dry, dusty opening in the woods that catered only to small birds and the occasional turkey.

So there we sat, waiting for the sun to set and hoping to get a glimpse of a deer before dark. That was when I heard a different sort of crunching in the leaves. It wasn’t the shuffling of a squirrel or the falling of acorns. This was different. This was a distinct crunching in a sharp four-legged rhythm. I looked toward the sound to see the brown body of a deer. It raised its head and white flashed through the bushes.

"Don’t move Katie, there’s a deer"

"Where?" She asked.

"It’s a buck, don’t move."

With the angle of her stand Katie could not see the small eight-point as it easily cleared the fence that stood in the way of its destination. The young buck stood alert, taking in all of it’s surroundings, searching for any reason to become wary of the area. Finally he relaxed and walked into a small clearing to the right of my stand.

"Should I turn the camera on?" Katie asked.

"Move very slow, I don’t think they can see you from there."

Just then I saw another brown body clear the fence. A wide rack gleamed in the setting sunlight.

"Wait, there’s another one, it’s a shooter." I cautioned.

Katie’s curiosity began to get to her as I described the scene in front of me. Two more bucks jumped the fence and began to playfully chase each other just on the other side of some bushes from my stand. They were about 50 yards away. Two were definite shooters. The small eight-point and an odd looking six-point completed the group. I gave Katie a play-by-play and tried to tell her which side of the tree to look around to see the deer when they stepped out, but they kept running in circles.

"I see one!" Katie whispered excitedly.

The small eight had stepped into a clearing about 40 yards right in front of me. I heard the camera come on as I watched the deer feed closer to me. Then a larger rack stepped into view. It took me a second to go from explanation mode to hunting mode. The deer was in the wide open, with absolutely nothing between him and me. It really wasn’t the most opportune time to try and draw, but it was the best I was going to get at that point. I slowly drew back my bow as the buck walked even closer. The buck froze at the same time I reached full draw. I took a deep breathe, exhaled, and touched my release. A hollow thud was followed by the buck spinning and running straight away.

"I got him!" I said. My nerves had caught up to me and my heart was about beating out of my chest.

"I got it on film!" Katie answered. "That was awesome, watch this."

We sat in the stand and watched the shot of my deer on camera over and over.

We could see right where the arrow entered, and how the buck reacted to the shot. I had hit him in the rib cage, a definite lung shot. I did not want to push the deer even though he was probably already down, so we decided to head back to the house and wait for our husbands who were hunting on another part of the farm.

Katie had no trouble climbing out of the stand. Her adrenaline had replaced any prior fear.

"I could do that." Katie said on the walk back. "I could kill a deer with a bow. When can I go? That was awesome."

We talked about the hunt the whole way back and watched the footage about 50 times while waiting for the guys to return. They came home after dark; they had each gotten a doe and had spent the last hour tracking and gutting. After seeing the video they were ready to head out and find my deer.

We drove to the stand and found the place where my buck had been standing when I shot. After walking about 100 yards in the direction the deer had gone we found him. Congratulations went around as we loaded my buck with the does on the truck. This had turned into a great hunt, not only had I gotten to shoot a good buck, but now the world of bow hunting has a new member.