Hunting Season Twenty-Ten

When I was little I remember taking turns in the stand with dad during hunting season.  I don't think he ever shot a deer with one of us with him.  Too much talking and foot swinging to get a deer to come within a mile of his stand.  By the time I turned 12 I couldn't wait to go through hunter's safety and be able to hunt by myself.  I hunted for 9 years before I shot my first deer.  It was a 5 point buck..not a trophy by any means but I was very proud.  Honestly, I hunt for venison.  Those big trophy bucks are that big because they're older and older deer have tougher venison.  I don't mind shooting does and younger bucks.  They taste better.

The last 4 years I haven't hunted as aggressively as I did when I was younger.  I have 3 kids now and it's difficult to find a babysitter to come over at 5am when you're getting ready to head to the stand before light.  Let alone the physical limitations during the hunting seasons I was pregnant. I thought I was going to have a heart attack walking in the knee high snow out to my stand when I was pregnant with Landon.  When I finally got out there I almost didn't fit through the hole under the stand to get in it. That was the only day I hunted that year.  He was born a month later.  This year was the first year I was going to be able to really hunt an enjoy myself and the outdoors.  I had my little sister and brother staying with us to watch Danica and Sawyer.  Ryan and I got up at 5:15am.  We bundled up and I made us each a turkey sandwich to hold us over til we got in for breakfast.  It was 12 degrees and snowing when we got in the truck and headed over to the family farm.  We loaded our guns and started our 45 acre hike out to the stand.  Trying to keep up with Ryan and his jolly green giant legs always leaves me out of breath.  Our stand sits right over the Jump River which runs through the property.  Ryan shot 3 deer out of that stand opening morning 3 years ago so I was pretty confident we'd get some shooting.  We knew the deer were moving.  We seen 5 just on our drive over.  Ryan was facing north watching up river and I was facing south watching down river.






We sat about an hour when a doe came out to the edge of the river right across from me.  It was just dark enough that I could hardly tell if it was a deer or if it was just my eyes playing tricks with the shadows. I couldn't tell if she was big enough to shoot or if I should wait for another.  There was a tree in Ryan's line of view and by the time I decided to take a shot she turned around and ran off.  I was so mad at myself for waiting as long as I did.  About an hour and a half later I heard Ryan put his gun up real fast and click his safety off.   I turned to see where he was aiming and by the time I found the deer he was already firing.  I saw the deer fall in the trees in front of me.  I knew it was dead.  We waited about 20 minutes to see if anything else came along.  I was going to stay in the stand while Ryan walked back out and across the bridge to find the deer.  That way if he kicked any deer up I'd still have a chance to shoot. Ryan had just climbed down the first rung of the ladder when I seen a deer coming through the trees to the place I had seen the doe that morning. I told Ryan to stop and as the deer came out I took my shot.  I missed completely but the deer stopped and looked around trying to figure out where the shot had come from.  I took a second shot and hit it.  As Ryan and I climbed out of the stand we heard it get up and move some. We walked out together and then back down the other side of the river across from our stand.  We found blood from both our deer right away.  We found Ryan's doe first and then my buck. I was using a borrowed gun and hadn't shot it in advance and I shot low.  Ryan finished it off with his pistol.  Ryan gutted both deer and his mom brought the 4-wheeler out to us so we could get the deer back to the truck.