Halloween and deer hunting go hand in hand. Just thinking about deer. Thinking about how much candy you could get that night. That night I already planned out where I was going to go and knew I would see some action. My dad said he was going to go with me because he wanted to go out hunting as well. So the school day ends and I happen to not have cross country because I was injured.

I get home and wait till about four to go out hunting with my dad because, we wanted to go hunting on a holiday. So as we start walking out there, I ask my dad, “if a buck walks by, can I shoot it?” He replies, “it depends on how big it is.” So we get out there and start hunting, but we always know that we will have to wait a couple hours before we will see anything. Time is passing by with nothing moving besides our fingers on our phones.

Suddenly, at 5:50pm, I look to my right and I see three doe’s walking down a hill in the hay field. I immediately stand up slowly and prepare to take a shot when they get in range. Well they didn’t get as close as I wanted them to. So as they start walking into the woods, I draw back and yell “BET!” They stop on a dime and instantly look to see where it came from. I fire my bow and arrow at one doe and missed it by a foot over the body. I was very disappointed in myself because I knew I could make that shot but I didn’t.

Now that I know that the deer are starting to move around now, I start to use my buck call shortly after I missed my doe. I start being more alert as with my dad because something could come into range. About fifteen minutes after I used my buck call, I look to my left and see a deer coming my way. With blood rushing through my body, I quickly stand up without the deer noticing. I soon realize that it was a buck and it looked to be about a four point or a spike.

I am standing in my stand with my dad shaking very badly. Shaking comes from seeing a deer that you can shoot. Your blood just starts rushing and you start feeling anxious. I switch from shaking so much to almost calm in a heartbeat because I start to stare down the buck as he is walking to me. I stare at him so I can anticipate his next move and where he could go. I’m standing there with my bow in hand and ready to draw back when I get a clear shot.

The buck keeps closing the distance and quickly. Before I knew it, he finally gave me a shot at fifteen yards away. I draw back without making a sound and without him noticing. I have my dad yell “BET” this time because I want to be focused. As my dad yells “BET”, he looks up directly at me and in a split second I fire. I hear a loud thump meaning I just hit him with the arrow knowing that I killed him.

I immediately turn to my dad and we high five each other in excitement. Knowing I just got my first deer, I was up and down (like I was bouncing off the walls) with excitement. I look at my phone to see what time it is and it is only 6:10pm. I know that there is still plenty of time left to hunt so I reload an arrow and sit there patiently waiting to get down and track him. As it nears dark, two doe’s come out from the woods when we started packing up. We had to wait and watch them move along before we got down.

We finally get down at 7:10 to go get my first arrow that I missed. We never found that arrow so we went to where I shot my buck. We get over there and start looking for my arrow to see if I did any damage. My dad found my arrow and it was covered in guts, blood, and corn. We knew that I made a good shot just from finding the arrow. Now we start looking for blood or hair that he left.

I found some hair that led us to a blood trail that we then followed. The first blood drop was huge! It was about the size of a leaf and covered it. From there, it was easy to track because now we just have to follow blood. Well it didn’t exactly happen that way, about forty yards away from the first blood spot, the blood started to weaken and disappear. We start thinking that my arrow went through the guts and pulled the intestines out of its side where the exit hole is. So we stop looking that night and hope the coyotes don’t get it.

The next morning, Me and my dad go out hunting again because we have to find my deer. Three minutes after we get up into our stand (a different one), a buck comes directly below us smelling our doe urine scent on our boots. We eagerly watch to see what he does and see if my dad can shoot him. Well he doesn’t stick around for much longer and that was basically all the action we saw that morning. We then slowly get down because the deer could still come out and we could have a shot but nothing came.

Where we ended last night tracking my buck is where we started but we had a different plan this time. Instead of looking for blood, we will just have to look for his body. So we start looking ten yards apart up and down our property to see if we can find him. After we start to give up, we find him behind a tree lying dead with a hole on his side. My dad counts the rack and see that it is a small six point buck! I was truly glad that we found it and the coyotes didn’t get to it.