Homesteader Life

Some folks want hear the story of the opening morning hunt. So here it is….

At 3:30 I rolled out of bed and fixed the fire. As the maple crackled and popped in the stove I poured a cup of black coffe to go, ok, a quart of it to go. This morning I also grabed my hunting clothes, my single shot shotgun and a box of deer slugs. It was opening morning of gun season and I had to get milking done and head out to my favorite spot in hopes of getting some venision for this winter. The last few years I spent more time trapping than hunting, but this year I wanted to spend more time deer hunting and didn’t set so many traps. Its been a few years since I’ve shot a deer, and I had been praying that if it was the Lord’s will that I would get one this year. Milking chores took a little longer than I had planned and I didn’t get out as quick as I wanted to. It was 6:30 before I made it to my stand. On the trip down, I watched the brush and thorn apples very close. Its not uncommon to send a few flying out of there on the way to this stand. I stopped and checked a fox trap, it was out of commision, washed out by the rains and then froze up from the snow. We had a good coating of snow on the ground from the day before and it was crusted over pretty good. I climbed up in the old tower stand, the one that I missed the doe out of during bow season, and it was covered with a layer of ice from the freeze thaw cycles we have been having. I tryed to scrape it off but it was useless to try. This stand sits in a major intersection of 5 or 6 deer highways and you can get a shot in any direction. Today I would have to pick a direction to watch and hope that nothing came up behind me becouse it would be impossible to move my feet without making noise. I chose a spot to watch and got settled in. I heard a lot of noise behind me and turned my head to see some squirrels tramping about. They left and it was quite again, then I heard them return. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Durn squirrels, I mttered under my breath. Then I said to my self, “Scotty, you better take a peek, couse with your luck theres a big ole buck walking behind you and your missing your chance for some venision”. I turned my head slowly, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw a big set of antlers coming right at me. Great….my heart sank, here comes the bigest buck I’ve ever had the chance to shoot at And I’m facing the wrong way and standing on crunchy ice! I prayed, “Lord….please, please let me get a shot”. He was coming fast and going to pass by the stand soon. I cocked the hammer back on my trusty singleshot and took a deep breath. I left my feet planted right where they were and twisted my torso around as far as I could. He was walking right along and paused for a moment, right at the moment my sights were on his chest. I touched her off, and boom…she barked. That old buck dropped right in his tracks. He kicked a few times and then just layed there. Praise the Lord!, I shouted. I watched him for a couple of minutes sure he might jump up and head for the thorn apples, but he didn’t ever move again. I climbed down see my buck, I counted the points, an 8 point buck, I could hardly believe my eyes. His body was huge, the biggest deer I’ve ever shot. I could hardly wait to get back up the hill and tell the boys an Leah! We’ve got venision and a wall decoration to boot! All I wanted was meat, I don’t normally get to exited about horns, you can’t eat them you know, but this was a real treat for me. I prayed for meat, I’d a been happy as a pig in slop to just have shot a doe, but the Lord blessed me with a fine buck.

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