First Buck of the Season
By: Tammy

October 7, 2006

The alarm went off at 5 AM and I decided that I didn’t want to get out of bed.  I was enjoying my morning sleep way to much.  It was a beautiful morning, not too hot and kind of cool so I kicked Donnie out of bed and I stayed snuggled in the blanket. After his morning hunt, we filled the pig feeders and discovered that my feeder was empty as well so we filled it up too.  I was a little leery of hunting that particular stand that evening but I decided to anyway. 

We got cleaned up, de-scented, and dressed in camo, which I might add, I make camo look good.  I got into my stand and all settled and began the waiting for the sun to begin its decent into the horizon.  I sat there looking down at the ground, listening the birds and watching the breeze blow the fallen leaves around.  I was thinking to myself that it couldn’t get any better than this.  Time alone in a deer stand is always a relaxing and refreshing time.  It is a good two and half to three hours of just me time. I enjoy this time to ponder thoughts on the meaning of life, or clear my thoughts of the weekly stresses in life.

 I saw some movement off to the left of my stand and slowly began to glance over.  Walking slowly along was one of the large black buck antelopes that we have been watching.  I was astonished he was so relaxed and was only 30 yards from me.  It was a sad thing that the shot was being blocked by part of the tree.  This was one of the first times that I had not been busted.  He caught sight of a doe and off he went.  He arrived back walking the same path he had earlier about 45 minutes later, and he had brought along a few does this time.

My feeder goes off and about 15 birds begin the feast on corn.  I look up again and here comes two yearling does to feast on some sustenance. Shortly after that, a couple young crab claw spikes come in and run them off so that they can eat too.  I see a small 6 point sneaking in to the feeder along with a yearling doe or a possible nubbin buck, these two hang around for about 45 minutes and suck up all the feed under the feeder.  They run off as if they were spooked and I slowly begin to look around to see what is going on and a small yearling comes in and begins to eat what little scraps are left.  I look to the right and then back again and in trots this buck. It is now about 7:10pm.  I can’t decide if I want to shoot him or not.  He was a nice looking buck to me.  I was thinking that maybe he was 3 years old.  I debated for about 10 minutes if I wanted to shoot him or not.  It was starting to get too late and I decided that if he gave me the perfect shot I would take him.

He turns broadside and I take a deep breath, then he turned to face me.  He then gives me a quartering away shot and I don’t like shots like that.  I had decided that if it was natures gift to me to take this buck he would give me the perfect broadside shot and he would stay in that position for me.

Well sure enough he turned his left side to me, put his head down to take a bite and I very shakily drew my bow.  He slowly lifted his head and looked in the direction of my stand and had my pin right where I wanted it.  Nice and tight behind the shoulder.  I slowly pulled the trigger on my release and the next thing I remember is seeing my arrow with the lighted nock sitting there in the dirt under my feeder.  I then see him running around the path that all the other deer have taken.  Then a few seconds later I see all the deer running back toward me but I didn’t see my buck with them.

My heart was beating like a drum in my chest and I had to take a few deep breaths, but I felt it was a great shot.  I slowly gathered my things, and climbed down out of my stand so that I could check my arrow.  I get to my arrow and it is covered in dirt and dust and I could see the blood on my fletching.  I smelled the arrow and it definitely smelled like a good shot.  I walked a few yards but never saw a blood trail, so I went back to the truck to wait for Donnie so that we could track my buck.

We looked for a few minutes for a blood trail and I began to get a little discouraged that we hadn’t found anything yet.  We opted to go back to camp, get the lantern and head back out to search.  When we arrived back at camp and all our lease buddies were there and offered to come help look for him.

We set off in search of my buck.  He went one of two ways, so a group of us went one way and another group went the other way.  Soon we found some blood and began to walk along.  Hydro says did you see that?  I get pretty freaked out in the dark, and I said no I didn’t see anything!  Just a few more yards and someone yells out here he is!  I walk around the trees and there is my beautiful 9 point.  After many congratulations and handshakes we loaded him up on BowWiz’s four wheeler and head back to camp.  A perfect ending to a perfect hunt!

 I would like to say thanks to Donnie, Kenneth, Tommy and Johnny, BowWiz, and Missy for helping me find my buck!