Does it seem to you like some people are luckier than others are? No matter what they attempt to do the first time, they are successful, almost as if some higher power is always looking out for them and everything comes to them the easy way. I do not believe in luck but more in destiny. If everything came easy for me, I would lose interest. Being in the right place at the precise time is what makes it a successful hunt versus just another day in the woods. It seems my destiny is that I must travel great distances in order to get the “first” of anything. Some have higher dues to pay than others do. An example of this, I had been bow hunting for five years but it took flying nine thousand miles to another country before I was able to achieve my first animal harvested by bow. Apparently, the same must be true for my first buck as well.
My husband came home a few weeks before Christmas 2006 to inform me we were going to Alabama between Christmas and New Years to hunt on a friends’ parents’ property between the holidays. All we needed was our non-resident license. Our host would provide everything with the exception of our hunting gear. We accepted the invite and decided to take both our bows and our Thompson Center fire muzzleloaders. We packed our gear into my truck, left home about 9 pm, and drove all night to get there. It was about nine hundred miles from our house to the hunting lodge.
Tired but ready to hunt, our host; Jean, Elizabeth and Dr. Hardy Downey showed us to our quarters so we could unpack and get ready for an afternoon hunt. They showed us around the property and explained their rules for hunting. They explained they do not harvest any buck less than eight points. The first night out, I had several deer come in and since I could not get a clear view to verify it was not a button buck, I choose to watch thru my binoculars. One was a six-inch spike.
The next day, I hunted the Green Field. I watched all the woodland critters and birds come to life but no deer. I went back to the same stand that afternoon. I decide to use my TC Omega this time out. Shortly after getting into my stand, two turkeys came into the field. I watched them feed in the field for two hours when I caught movement from my left. I could see it was a buck but not sure enough to know if it was, indeed, a shooter. I watched as he worked his way into the field to feed with the two turkeys already there. I had to be careful of my movement, as the turkeys had worked their way up to me and were only about 30 yards from me. Then the buck turned his head so that I could see he was, indeed, a shooter. This deer had eight points and antlers out past the ears. I knew I could shoot him if I could only get my adrenaline under control. I picked up my gun and put him in the cross hares of my scope and pulled the trigger. All I could see was smoke for a minute. Did I hit him? He was just standing there not moving or running off. I could not figure out if I had hit him. I set my gun down and watched him through my binoculars and I could see him hunched up but he did not move or go down. Now what do I do? By this time, the turkeys had left but the buck was still standing there not moving. I decided I needed to get another shot loaded in the gun. I was shaking like a leaf blowing on a windy day, so reloading was not easy. I knew I hit him but he just stood there, not moving. This is not how they show it on the hunting TV shows! Why was it just standing there? I finally got my gun loaded five minutes later and still shaking, I raised it to get another shot into him. He went down this time. I had just harvested my first buck! I called camp to let them know I had a buck down. Elizabeth and Al came to help recover the deer. Elizabeth laughed as she saw me in tears kneeling beside my buck. I had finally done it! It took nine years but I had finally harvested my first buck.
We hunted the next day, shot trap, visited with our new friends, and enjoyed the warm Alabama day before we would head back home to Illinois and the cold that night. I drove all night to get home, as I had to work on Saturday morning. I went to work, got my work completed by noon and headed to my taxidermist with my first buck.
