© Copyright Vikki L. Trout

“Are you going to be able to climb your tree and shoot your bow?,” asked my husband John as he watched me add layer-after-layer of clothing that morning.  The temperature had plummeted after many days of heat lost their grip to autumn.  I wasted no time in telling him I would be fine.

We headed to our deer stands that morning full of anticipation since the weather had finally turned cold.  I climbed into my blind, attached my safety vest strap to the tree, knocked my arrow, put on my arm guard and release and drew my bow.  I was able to draw!  And I was ready for a buck – if one decided to cooperate.  Meanwhile, my eyes were fixed on the eastern horizon as I patiently waited for that big ball of warmth to appear.  The sky was turning pink and I knew it was just a matter of time.

Seeing the sun come up while sitting in a blind is second to nothing in my opinion.  There is just something about the first break of day that fills your heart with joy and makes everything seem right with the world.  Add to that, the anticipation of the hunt and it’s overwhelming.

I sat in my tree listening to the songbirds waking up and serenade the woods as a gray squirrel jump from tree-to-tree.  I still had not seen a whitetail deer, but felt certain it was just a matter of time until I did.  The place I was hunting led to a bedding area, and I hoped it would produce action later in the morning.

I had been standing less than 10 minutes when I heard crunching leaves from a distance. At first I thought I had figured out where my gray squirrel had gone.  Then it hit me – that’s not a squirrel!  I definitely heard the crunching of hooves on leaves.  I focused my eyes in the direction of the approaching deer as it moved closer to my stand.  I could see it was a doe.  I decided to get my bow in case she had a buck following behind.  She stopped to browse and I noticed another deer coming.  It was a buck – he had three points and promptly got her moving as he “bird-dogged” her.  They moved into my woods but took a turn and never came within bow range.  As I watched them leave, I thought my morning was probably done.

Just when I was thinking about my strategy for the next hunt, I noticed another deer moving towards me.  The sun hit his 8-point rack and nearly blinded me.  With my bow still in hand, I was prepared to raise it if he would turn his head.  He cooperated by looking towards the doe and 3 pointer.  As he stopped 18 yards from my tree offering a perfect quartering-away shot, my Muzzy-tipped carbon arrow passed through the vital lung area.  I watched as he ran off and vanished over a hill.  He made quite the racket and I felt that it was just a matter of seconds until I would hear him pile up.

I never heard the crash you expect to hear when a buck hits the ground, but wasted no time calling John on our 2-way radio.  He had no idea what had just happened.  His attention was focused on numerous turkeys scratching the woods’ floor!  As I waited for him to finish talking, he ended his sentence by asking if I was seeing anything.  I told him in a very shaky voice that I had just shot a buck.  He questioned my statement because it was hard for me to talk.  I repeated myself – three times.  Then all the questions started: “How big, how deep did your arrow penetrate, where precisely did your arrow hit, which way did he go, was the tail up or down, how fast was he running and did you hear him fall?”  As I gave him my answers, he kept track of the information in order to help me trail the buck when we met at the base of my tree stand.

Approximately 30 minutes after we started trailing the buck we located him piled up just over the hill that prevented me from hearing him go down.  As I gazed down at my trophy, I could only think to myself – what a great day God had blessed me with – a beautiful sunrise and now this beautiful buck.

Vikki L. Trout