It was December 5, 2008 and the first Friday of the shotgun season. Seeing I didn't have class on Fridays it was a good opportunity to go hunting. My father and I got up early and headed to my great uncle's house for a nice day of hunting. I had been out bow hunting since the second week of October with no luck. I had seen a number of deer but none of the encounters produced any success. I had two stand locations I had been alternating between. In late summer my father and I built a stand behind the barn where a bunch of apple trees had been planted many years ago. I saw most of the deer at this spot with one of them I suspect being a buck, but I never actually saw the deer clearly to tell. We also put up my two man ladder stand on the top of the hill quite a ways up from the house. Over the years this has been the most successful spot. We got to the house just before daylight and started up the hill slowly making our way to my stand. My father went up just I ways past my stand where he had been on opening day and shot at what he said was a big buck. When he shot I turned around and saw two deer running back down the hill. On Friday almost the same scenario played out with the deer coming up from behind me except this time for some reason he didn't see them. The snow hadn't come yet so the leaves were still crunchy and I could hear something coming. I turned around and could see a decent doe coming the exact same way as Monday. I turned around and knelt down on one knee resting the barrel on the stand. When I did this she must have heard me and started to jump. I whistled and she stopped unfortunately behind a big tree. I was able to pick her up in the scope and I aimed just in front of the tree. My plan was to shoot just as she stepped out from behind the tree, provided see didn't start running. She took a couple steps and I let the first shot go. She took off and crossed the stone wall just in front of my stand. I'm not sure if I hit her on the first shot or not but she stopped in front of the stand in the only clear shooting lane. I put the scope right behind her shoulder and let the second shot go. This time see dropped right to the ground. I was extremely excited seeing that I have been hunting since I was 15 with no success. I had a lot of opportunities but none seemed to work out up till now. When we went to the checking station the deer weighed 126 lbs dressed and was about 4 years old. This wasn't a monster but was a nice deer. I can't wait for bow season to start in another month. I'm already getting ready. I just bought some new broad heads and a trip to Cabelas is in the near future, maybe even this Saturday.
