First Buck on Opening Day

 In honor of opening day of gun season this weekend I figured I would share a story about my second opening day hunt by myself. I had just turned fifteen years old that year and got a new gun for my birthday. I could not wait to take it out but for obvious reasons I had to wait a month. The days were growing closer and closer and I was so excited to get out in the woods with that new gun when the day finally came. I had sat in the oldest spot in the woods, but my favorite spot at the time. I was only sitting a few hundred yards away from where my dad was sitting, yet felt like I was on my own adventure as I walked to the stand through the dark woods.

It was turning out to be a pretty slow morning when I had only seen a few deer by eight thirty. Then everything stated to come together. I was only sitting about fifty yards into the woods off a fields when I saw a bunch of deer running across the field just to the right of me. I got excited not knowing what it could be, then i saw him. He was with eight different does and was the stud of the woods. My heart began to race due to the fact it was the biggest deer I had ever seen while hunting. He came through the woods to my right and was not presenting the shot I needed to take. I began to hit my call trying to take him off the does he was with, I was working my deer hunting magic! Like usual it did not work and he began to disappear into the the brush in front of me. He was heading right towards another guy in our woods and I was not gonna take the chance of not getting this deer. I set my gun on the rest, put the red dot right behind his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The shot went off and he took off running back where he came from, I thought for sure I had missed so I racked another shell into my twenty gauge and let another piece led fly while he was on the run. The bullet hit him like a ton of bricks and put him in a pile. My heart began to race and I heard my dad over the radio. "Was that you that shot?" He could hear the excitement in my voice as I told him I just smoked the biggest deer of my life. I never saw my dad move quicker as he go out of his stand and came over to congratulate me on my trophy. This day will stay locked in my heart and race through my mind every time I go out hunting.