As I said in my profile when I first became a staff writer for Women Hunters, I wanted to harvest my first deer. My husband and I applied for tags, and we were both awarded 2 antlerless deer tags. I decided that I needed practice with my Winchester model 70 22-250 first. I have never hunted with a scope, so my husband suggested doing some target practice to see if I would need a scope. We set up the targets and I loaded my rifle. I stared down the open sights- steadying my arms as much as possible. My target was a small Gatorade bottle filled with water perched on top of a grill at 50 yards. I took a deep breath and squeezed of a shot. Miss. I slid the bolt back ready to take shot number two, while I knew my husband was snickering behind me. Steady...aim....squeeze.... the gun fired and the Gatorade bottle exploded off the top of the grill.
“Did you see that?!” I laughed excitedly.
“Yeah! If you can do that, you don’t need a scope. Let me try it!” my husband said with a jealous twinge in his voice. Four shots later, my husband accepted defeat as the Gatorade bottle stood victorious atop the grill. I was smiling ear to ear. Those were my first two shots with my rifle. Shot number three would be a deer. I had no idea what was in store for me on my first whitetail deer hunt.
Opening day proved to be quite blustery. I walked alone to my tree stand and carefully navigated the steps to the tree stand in the dark. I felt very alone, very excited and very nervous. The sun hadn’t risen yet. Everything was still but for the wind, which swayed the tree I was in back and forth. I fought tiredness as my eyelids grew heavy. As the sun began to rise, I felt truly at one with my surroundings. I was able to take in the beauty of wildlife without disturbing it. As I peered downward, two rabbits shot out of the bushes and began jumping, tumbling and bouncing around the trail, chasing each other this way and that. I tried hard not to laugh, although the sight of those two silly rabbits was thoroughly amusing. A few minutes after the rabbits scampered off, I heard the gobble of a turkey. Turning around slowly, I spotted our 5 resident wild turkeys, who have claimed our farm as their land. I smiled as they walked beneath my tree stand, unaware that I was observing them.
A few hours later, no deer and my cell phone began to vibrate in my pocket. It was my husband warning me that he was walking my way from the east. He and Jeremy had been hunting two fields over in their tree stands and hadn’t seen any deer either. I crawled out of my tree stand nearly frozen and walked to the pickup truck. Jeremy and Justin arrived and we decided to walk some of the tree lines and scare out some of the deer. The entire day was uneventful, and not a shot was fired. Slightly saddened and disappointed, I headed for home. I had assumed that day one would be action packed- although it wasn’t.
“Welcome to whitetail hunting,” Justin said. “You’ll get your shot at a deer. Just wait.”
While he reassured me a little, I was thinking that when it got down to it- when there was a deer just down the barrel from my rifle, I would miss. Perhaps I wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger. The next day Jeremy opted not to go with, so Justin and I began walking tree lines but again, to no avail. Once Justin and I were walking a pasture in grass up to my head he called out, “Deer! Shoot!” and pointed into the grass.
“Where?!”
“Right there! She’s looking right at us!”
“I can’t see her!” I exclaimed.
The deer panicked and apparently ran off, although I still hadn’t seen her. We walked to the edge of the property and saw a herd of 6 deer walking the next field over. It wasn’t our land, but we sat patiently on our side of the fence to see if they were heading our way. They weren’t. We got up and started walking back towards the eastern most side of the property. Our landlord told us that in the evening, the deer were normally in that pasture.
Just before we rounded the tree line to the pasture our landlord swore would be loaded with deer, I saw the tree stand and decided to climb up and sit there to wait. Just as I was half way up, Justin had rounded the tree line to overlook the pasture.
“Pssst! Get down here!” Justin whispered.
I climbed back down the tree as quickly and quietly as possible. I had my rifle in hand as I crawled to the corner where Justin was.
“Get ready- there’s one right around the corner,” he said.
I stood up, rounded the corner with the rifle on my shoulder and saw her- a beautiful doe. She pulled her head up and stared right at me. Instinctively, I clicked the safety off and fired. She dropped.
“Three deer in fifteen seconds!” He exclaimed.
I walked over to my dropped doe and tapped her with the barrel of my gun. No movement. I kneeled down next to her and stroked her.
“My first deer. She’s beautiful.” I said as I stroked her fur. I couldn’t believe it. My very first deer- a good shot and a clean kill. I couldn’t believe our luck. As I sat next to my deer, I imagined a Native American doing this- kneeling down next to their prey and thanking the animal for their spirit. Justin’s tags were already filled, and I had one to go. As Justin went to pull the pickup around, I prayed and thanked God for a wonderful hunt, and a wonderful deer.
