Napping in the stand is okay, but shooting a big buck is better.
It was midseason in Indiana in 2013, and the wind wasn’t blowing hard. We had gone hunting in the morning and saw one doe. We were hunting at my grandpa’s, and there are some big deer there. He doesn’t like us to shoot does, so we passed.
When it got 2:50 p.m. that evening, we decided to go back to the woods. We got in the stand at 3:30, and I fell asleep around 5 o’clock. My dad, who was sitting beside me, got me up at 5:30 and told me to stay awake. I’m glad he did. About 13 minutes before dark, two does came out.
The does stayed in front of us for about 3 minutes. We were just about to leave when a buck came out. He was on my dad’s side, and I put the gun in place. The buck looked like he was in a hurry, so Dad stopped him. I put the bead right where Dad told me to and pulled the trigger.
The wind had picked up by then, and all the smoke had gone into the woods behind us. I looked back just in time to see the deer run away.
It tried to run, but I thought I had hit it good. I heard a loud crash and I told my dad. He was so excited he was making the stand shake.
My dad was half way down from the stand when he said, “Look!”
When I looked down I saw a jacket we had left. “So that’s what scared the does off.” We had dropped a coat, and it was hanging on the treestand.
We got down from the stand and went where I heard the crash, and the buck was laying right where I’d heard the sound.
The first thought got through my head like lightning: “It’s a monster of the field.”
He had dove right into a tree that had fallen, and I was surprised the antlers didn’t break off. We loaded him up in the truck and took him home.
I will always remember my buck.