The Deer Hunter

I took Jake deer hunting with me this year for the first time. Of course he was extremely excited, especially since we left mom and his younger brothers at home - just us guys. I'm not quite ready for him to handle high powered firearms yet, so he went only as my spotter, but a hunter none the less.

After seeing nothing but coyotes the first day and having to sit through some miserable weather, I was a little discouraged for him, and kept reminding him that sometimes that's how hunting went. Despite our poor luck the first day, he jumped out of bed and was ready for day two early the next morning even proding me along some to hurry to our stand. After another stretch of nothing, we decided to get down and go for a little walk prior to officially calling it quits for the weekend, although I had pretty much decided the hunt was over.

Just as we were returning to where we had left our gear, I noticed a buck cruising along just inside the woods opposite the field we were walking through. Perfect, I thought, Jake was going to get his deer. With an uncanny lack of hesitation I signaled for him to freeze, dropped my glove from my trigger hand, shouldered my 30-06 and squeezed off a round. For a split second I was confused when I did not see the white flash of tail as the deer jumped and stumbled from the stike of the bullet, but instead it simply disappeared from the view of my scope. I looked at Jake and saw excitement, shock, and bewilderment all in one as he screamed, "you got it!"

It was a direct shot to the head and the deer didn't feel a thing, instant death dropping straight to the ground. The round had gone in one ear and out the other, effectively shattering the skull, leaving only minimal surface wounds, and the only blood to speak of was a trickle leaving its ears and mouth. I tried to maintain a steely composure and act as if this was perfectly typical for me -as if I were some kind of highly skilled and trained outdoor assasin. I'm not sure whether he bought the act or knew there was a lot of luck involved to make that shot from a standing position 150 yards out, but either way, I'm pretty sure we made for a great memory of his first hunt with dad.