My First Buck... It's a Trophy!

This past week Daniel and I have been making every effort possible to find me a deer to shoot at. Last Saturday we happened to see a 3 point running.. unfortunately, no shot. Then Tuesday night we were with Daniel's cousin Travis hunting in Orangeville and happened to surprise a two point with his lady friend. He stopped at about 100 yards, during the time that Travis and Daniel begin to freak out and tell me to, "Load a bullet! Get out of the truck! Shoot the buck! Hurry before me runs away!" I was breathing hard because of all the hoopla that had happened already, and finally got the gun on the shooting sticks. I tried to shoot the gun three times before realizing I had failed to take it off safety.. and then I shot under the buck! Talk about being stressed, excited, and having a true hunting experience.

A little disappointed we headed back out to try and find me a buck to shoot at before it got dark. At the last possible moment Travis and Daniel spotted more deer, and confirmed the presence of horns on one. There were about five does with the buck, and Daniel had to point the scope so I could find them because I couldn't find them with my naked eye (I'm blind). Daniel told me, "Wait til he walks out in front, okay, now he's the front deer looking back at us, take your shot when you're ready."

Luckily Daniel hadn't put the safety on or I think I would have had problems again. I took a shot at this lovely little buck below at about 150 yards, he was quartering away, and as Daniel says, "You nailed him clean pilgrim!" (Jerimiah Johnson) And therefore, I was overjoyed and very excited to have shot and killed my first buck. He only went about 30 yards before he was down - and if you can't tell, he is a spike by 2.

Travis told Daniel to rest my 25-06 on his antlers... :) As you can tell it needed a little bit of help from Daniel.

See it forks on it's right side, I promise!

This seems to be the tradition this year from Daniel's family, Mindi did this with her elk, and his Aunt Nettie with her deer. So, I joined the club. I think the feet are cool, you can watch the tendons move as you move the hooves. Happy Hunting!