This is the story of my very first buck that I shot in 2011. This hunting story takes place over a span of two hunting seasons, as I attempted to shoot my first buck.
I have been hunting since I could keep up with my dad and brother, and I desperately wanted to join in the ranks of my family as having shot a buck. I was 21-years-old and this was only my second year hunting with a rifle. All my other years I had been spotter.
I first saw this buck in the season of 2010 when I had been calling in my hunting spot and he approached with another deer, which I couldn’t see well. I was so excited at seeing my first buck, that I took my shot and missed completely. I’d like to think I at least pierced his ear.
Later that season, I was hunting with my brother in -40 degrees Celsius in the snow. We had decided that we were the only ones dumb enough to be out there when we looked behind us and saw this buck. I took a kneeling shot (which I was not practiced at) and shot at the deer. I had missed (three times to be exact), but had succeeded in breaking my nose with the scope of my new .270 win rifle. Through my tears from the broken nose, I sadly told my brother (apparently in a higher squeaky voice), “You can shoot him now.” At which time the buck was already out of range.
A few days later, my brother had gone hunting with our dad and returned to tell me that he had shot my buck. I was so sad and was about ready to cry, but I had to be nice so I said, “I’m happy for you.”
After a few seconds, my brother broke out laughing and ended up in tears because apparently my face had several different emotions other than happiness cross it. He said that he had actually shot a doe but couldn’t help teasing me.
The next year (the fall of 2011), I sat in my favourite hunting spot and called and rattled. On two different occasions, I told myself that I would wait another five minutes and then take a walk to see if anything was moving.
I walked down a cutline and when I emerged at the end, I saw this buck walking out of an adjacent cutline 170 yards away. My first thought was that he was a buck! And a big one! And then I thought, “YOU!”
I remembered him from my broken nose from the year before. He was a nice broadside shot and he didn’t even know I was there. I kneeled and shot the buck.
I was so excited I had shot my first buck (and a big one at that!). My hands were shaking so badly I dropped my phone twice in my attempts to call home and inform them of my kill.
This was a hunting trip that resulted in an amount of revenge, as he was the reason I had broken my nose. I can still see him through the scope as he fell and hear the crack of deadfall when he collapsed. And I remember seeing him and thinking “YOU!”
He is now hanging on our living room wall and scored a 131 4/8”. He may not be the biggest trophy, but he is one full of memories.
I got my first buck! ■
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