My First Deer
The author with her trophy buck.
The opportunity to go deer hunting has always excited me, since my family really does not do too much deer hunting, so I have never really had a chance. My dad hunts hogs at night, but I always am ready to go to bed when he is starting to hunt. In 2013 I had my first chance, but I did not see any deer. I did shoot a javelina, though, and was excited and asked my dad if we could have it mounted. We both changed our minds after we spent a little time putting in on the back of the golf cart. Wow—those things are stinky!
I have a few big priorities: school work, swimming, competitive shotgun shooting, and hunting. I have a little sister, Cameron, who loves Harry Potter, and who is also in the 4-H shotgun club with me. She made me mention her in this story.
In October 2014 I had an awesome opportunity. My parents went to a Shriner’s Gala to support the Shriner Hospitals and bid on this awesome youth hunt at the Charco Marrano Ranch for me. Shriner Hospitals help children suffering with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and from a cleft lip and palate. They’re eligible for care from the hospitals, and receive all services in a family-focused environment, regardless of their ability to pay.
Located near Cotulla, the Hunter family has owned their sprawling brush country ranch since 2000. I found out after meeting the owners how special it was for them to donate the hunt to the Shriners as well, because they are very focused on helping kids. When I went to the hunt, I saw a family that was so funny, nice, as well as very experienced hunters. The Hunter family went everywhere together. They never left each other’s sides, and always seemed to have time for their kids. There were four generations of the family that were there at the ranch house during our hunt.
After we arrived at the ranch, it was not long before we were on our way to the hunt. It had been raining a lot over the last couple of weeks, and it was super muddy. When we got to our deer stand with our guide Glen, he explained that if we had our opportunity to take a deer, he wanted me to shoot it in the front shoulder instead of behind the shoulder, which is where I had always been told to shoot. He said that if I hit it right in the middle of the shoulder, it should not run and we would be able to retrieve it much easier since the mud was so bad it was even hard to walk through it.
I didn’t sit there for more than 30 minutes when we saw two yearling four-point bucks come out. I knew that we couldn’t shoot them because they were too small. Then, I saw a beautiful nine-pointer come out with them and we watched it for a while. I was sure this would not be my deer because it was too big and this was, of course, a youth hunt. We watched it for a while and Glen seemed to keep looking in the bushes for other deer to come out. I sure hoped that something smaller would come out so I could have my chance. Finally, as we were running out of daylight, Glen put down his binocular and quietly asked me, “Do you want to shoot that deer?” It was the big one I was watching. I was not nervous until that moment since I did not even consider that was the deer I was going to shoot.
When I put my rifle out of the window I found out what buck fever is. Glen told me to take my time and s-q-u-e-e-z-e the trigger. That sounded so easy. This was not a paper target I was shooting at. I thought to myself, “What if I miss? What if it runs?” When I pulled the trigger, I hit the buck right where I was aiming and down it went. I was using a suppressed Remington 700 bolt-action rifle in a .300 blackout, so it didn’t hurt my ears and did not kick much. The deer went right down. I was so excited! We took the deer back to the ranch house and they cleaned it for me. So now we will be eating food that I can say that I shot for my family, which is really cool. Also, I can’t wait to get the mount back so I can put it on our wall. My mom has always said, “No animals on walls,” but it looks like she’ll have to make an exception because I was so excited.
