Lets start with this, Ive always been into hunting, I grew up in a family of mostly men so hunting, fishing, and camping was just a way of life. I have been on numerous hunting and scouting trips as a young child with my grandparents and uncles, kind of phased out of it in middle school and then back into it in high school dating guys who hunted but I had never had my own license and tag to hunt. That is until last year when I went out and got my license and deer tag. Unfortunately I got extremely sick during the season and didn't get much hunting in so I ended the season without a deer. Bummer.
This year is an entirely different story! Rifle season started this weekend and I was beyond excited! Hunting season is the only time of year I am OK and actually excited about getting up at 4 in the morning! I had been asking my boyfriend for days what time we were going to be leaving Saturday (opening day) morning and he kept telling me "early" or "when its dark" once he said "3" . Well Friday night he ended up falling asleep on the couch while we watched a movie and we hadn't discussed the game plan for the next morning so I took it upon myself to make the plans! I very much liked this as I'm kind of a control freak but Ive never let him on to this I find away to make him think hes in control so he keeps his pride but really its me. Haha. So I decided 3 am just wasn't going to happen I moved it to 4:00 a.m instead. Since he was asleep and I was to excited to go to bed at that moment I decided to paint my nails. I know I know, why in the world would I paint my nails before a hunt. Because I am a girl thats why. And because I thought that if I painted them blaze orange it might bring me some good luck! So I painted them and then crawled into bed for the night. My alarm went off and the 1st thing that went through my head was screw this I'm going back to sleep. Then my inner child kicked in and said get up get up its opening day! I literally flew out of bed pumped with energy I didn't even know I was capable of, I was oblivious to the fact he never even made it off the couch. I was dressed and ready to go when I finally realized he was still asleep. This was not okay. I went out and woke him up and this is the conversation that ensued.
Him: "Why are you waking me up at 4 in the morning"
Me: "Because you said we were getting up at 3 and you fell asleep last night but I decided 4 sounded better so I let you sleep in"
Him: "I was joking, it doesn't get light for like 3 more hours, wake me up at 7"
ME: "You've got to be kidding me"
Him: (chuckles)
Me: "You shouldn't tell me things unless your serious when it concerns something I'm excited about, you brought this on yourself"
I then roll my eyes at him, head back down the hallway and flop onto the bed. I am deeply disappointed at this very moment that he is not getting up and is no where near as excited as I am. A few minutes later I hear him get up and moving around and start getting ready. At this point my inner child is screaming with joy again and I probably would have started jumping up and down on my bed if I knew it wouldn't break, its almost time to retire the poor thing.
We finally left the house about 4:15 and just as I pull out of the driveway there is a Doe and 2 Fawns at the end of the road. My immediate thought was "oh great this is going to be just like last year where I see them all over in the neighbor hood and back yard but don't see a single one in the woods" then it turned into "Or maybe this is a good sign, 3 is one of my lucky numbers". We head to 7-11 since its the only thing open in our podunk town at this time of the day and get our coffee. I ended up buy 3 things and the total came to $7.77. I was like you've got to be kidding me, maybe this will be my lucky day after all! My boyfriend quickly bursts that bubble and tells me its bad luck i should just quit while I'm ahead (aka alive) and go back home. (It's a good thing I love him as much as I do and that I fully appreciate and understand his messed up sense of humor other wise it's him I'd be worried about and not the deer I'm after). I refuse to let him bring my good mood down and we head for the hills.
We got to our desired area about 5:30 and had to wait about and hour and 15 until dawn came so we could start the hike in. When day light broke we hoped out of the truck and behind the locked gate we went. We hiked up the old logging road about a 1/2 mile and came up on a unit that would have been PERFECT to get a buck in. It would have been a straight hike down the unit to the road with it, even though I was having a pretty good morning my luck isn't that good. We hiked about another 1/4 mile and glassed over another unit, still nothing so we continued on about a mile or so glassed over that unit and nothing. We could however see across to another unit on the other side of the lake and someone had taken down a buck. It was at this point and after hearing several shots fired through out the morning I was getting bummed. We watched them for a bit and then the bf said "were not gonna get a deer sitting here watching them" so we turned around and headed back the way we came since we'd reached the end of that road. We got back to where it forked and went uphill some more and probably another mile or so into the woods when we found another unit. We started glassing it and not 30 seconds into it he spotted a buck. Lets just say it wasn't in the best place. He was about 3/4 of the way down the ridge across from us curled up in a ball a lot like his dog Toby does with his head by his ass. Not really the best position for a good shot. We watched him for a few minutes then my guy decided to go down the ridge we were on top of and down into the brush to try and get a better look at him and make sure he was at least a legal buck and to maybe scare him a bit and get him to stand up for a good shot. As hes going down the unit I get myself comfortable and kept my scope on him to make sure I never lost sight of him and if he decided to run id be ready to shoot. My guys down in the brush moving from spot to spot even throwing things at him and with all the yelling back and forth to each other he never spooked unfortunately. He was having a tough time getting a good view of his antlers so I stopped watching through my scope and pulled out my binoculars and focused in on him. Sure enough he was a forked horn. I yelled down to him "I see forks, and I think Ive got a decent shot, can we get this over with" Apparently he didn't hear the forks part because he yelled back "I need to make sure hes legal" I think to myself did i not just say i saw forks, whatever I'll just wait til he says go. So another 30 minutes or so go by and I am no longer comfortable I am cramping and shaking and ready to just shoot but he's down in the brush some where and I'm not exactly sure where at that exact moment so I cant. Finally he says "Let me know when your ready" I couldn't believe he just said that Ive only been ready for how long but whatever. I yelled back I was ready, took in a deep breath lined up my shot and fired. Missed. Damn It. He never even flinched double damn it. Jacked another round into the chamber lined up and fired. Nailed him!!! He gets up you can see hes having problems and starts to try and run its at that moment I go to jack another round in and realize SHIT i forgot to reload after practice shooting and I'm out. SHIT. All I can think is please stop trying to get away. Thank god Jimmy was ready and when he realized that I wasn't going to shoot again shot and got him right in the jaw which was enough to keep him from running anymore and he just tumbled down the unit. GAME OVER! Well for the deer at least. Now came the task of getting him out of the bottom of a unit.
I had to walk about a 1/2 mile to get to the ridge that he and the deer were at the bottom of. And then the non fun part started, I had to make my way down this steep slippery super brushy ridge to get to my animal and boyfriend. It took me a little bit because I am one of the last coordinated people I know. When I got there I was so stoked! I had actually killed a deer! And it was a 3 (barely) by fork, not the biggest deer but a good one for my 1st none the less!!!! It was quiet obvious there was no way I was going to get this thing out of there and it was up to my guy. So he gutted most of it and then I packed his rifle, knife and binos out for him and helped him load the deer on his back and we started the trek out. We had to stop a few times because it was a brutal steep slippery at times nothing to hold onto trek straight up. We or rather he finally got it out of the unit and the hardest part was over. Now for the few mile trek back that wouldn't have been so bad but there were still some hills to take on but none near as bad as the one we had just conquered. After about 3 hours after the kill went down we made it back to the truck with the buck in tow!
We headed for his parents house where we hung it, gutted what was left of it skinned it and quartered it and now it just sits in the fridge curing for a few days and we this coming weekend the jerky making with start!
In the field after I finally made it down the ridge!!!! Blaze Orange nails and all
Back at his parents
Tractors can be used for multiple things!!!!
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