Hunting begins with the day before Matt goes out to get the “Big One”. It starts with getting all of his gear together and making sure his gun is in tip top shape. He has a check list he always goes through because he always forgets things when he goes out hunting. He makes his check list..
Gun, Ammunition, Calls, Scents-No scent spray, All hunting clothes, Flashlight-string-tags-Hunting knife-binoculars, Hand warmers
After he makes his check list, he starts by hanging his hunting clothes outside so the fresh air will get rid of most of the human scent. Then he makes sure he has his calls, hand warmers, binoculars, knife, string, flashlight, scents, ammunition, and his tags pinned to his hunting jacket. When he gets most of the gear together, he starts getting his gun ready. He gets his gun cleaning kit out and starts cleaning every inch of his gun. When he is finished, he puts his gun in its case and finishes getting his gear ready. ‘The key to a good hunt is to eat a good supper and get to bed early after a No Scent shower.’ After Matt gets done eating, he takes his no scent shower. After checking over all his gear again he sets his alarm for 4:30 a.m. and goes to sleep excited for his hunt tomorrow.

It is now 4:30 a.m. and Matt wakes up by the buzzing of his alarm clock. He gets out of bed and puts on sweat pants and long johns to keep him warm underneath his hunting clothes. He then gets all of his gear onto the deck and slips on his hunting pants and jacket making sure he has his tags on the jacket. After getting dressed he loads his gear up into the truck and goes over and makes sure he has everything again. ‘Even though the sun isn’t up yet he thinks it will be a great day for hunting, there’s no wind and its colder out but not too cold.’ After he is positive he has all of his gear, he hops into his truck and starts off to his hunting spot.

Matt hunts on his dads land and its over 100 acres with food plots and wooded area with many hay fields. He has a special spot that his dad used when he hunted and he passed it down to Matt when he stopped hunting. What makes the spot so special is his dad hunted and missed the biggest buck he had ever seen in that spot and Matts father wanted to see Matt get the deer. Matt has been looking forward to this hunt for a long time and this is his first time going to this spot. He is hoping for the big one to come out and give him a clear shot but he doesn’t know what will happen yet...let’s find out.

As he pulls up to the field he parks along the side of the road, not wanting to pull in and scare the deer out of their beds. He gets out and gets his gear ready and pulls his gun out of the case. He is very careful not to make any noise when shutting the doors on his truck and loading shells into his gun. He knows where the deer stand is and it’s about a half mile walk when he enters the wooded area of land. It is about 5 o’clock at this point and he has to be in his stand at 5:30 so he can sit for a half hour before the sun comes up. When he’s all set he starts into the field working his way to the woods. As he’s coming up to the edge of the woods he is very careful not to make noise as he enters because he knows the deer bed down not too far away. He is doing a great job at being quiet but no matter how great of a hunter you are you will always make noise. He is about half way to his stand and he snaps a branch. He knew that would spook the deer because he could hear deer stirring in their beds but can’t see because there is no sun. After spooking the deer he stops for a while and lets them settle back in. He finally gets to his stand and climbs up after taking the shells out of his gun for safety.

He is now in the stand and he loads his gun again and settles in making sure not to be too loud. This is his time to sit and listen to his surroundings and check the weather conditions. “it’s a great day no wind and the temperature is chilly but getting warmer as the sun comes up.” Its 6:00 a.m. now and the sun is coming up and the animals start stirring in their beds. It is a beautiful morning a great start to a hunting day is a good morning. As the morning goes on and the animals start moving around he sets his gun on the gun rest at the ready so if something comes out he will be ready. As the sun gets higher the birds come out and start singing and the squirrels start playing around in the leaves blow his stand and all he can do is sit and watch them as they make a lot of noise in the leaves. He is enjoying just sitting in the woods and seeing and listening to nature, but he came to see if he could get a shot at the Big One.
His father had hunted the Big One for 4 years. His dad got one shot at the deer and he injured the deer but it didn’t go down. Matt has been hunting for 12 years now and he has a great shot because his father loved hunting and always took him to the gun range. At the range they would always practice for hours on end. Since Matt had so much practice shooting his father thought he would have a chance at putting the monster deer down.
The sun is high in the sky now and Matt has seen a few does and a small buck but he didn’t want to shoot a small deer so he waited. The sun is now starting to drop and Matt is getting anxious because the deer normally come out when the sun starts to set. He is on the lookout now just waiting for the big deer to come out of the brush and present a shot for Matt. The sun is siting on the edge of the earth about to go down and a group of does slide out of the brush to his right and they look like their running from something. When the does get about 20 yards out of the brush Matt is thinking about shooting one so he can get some deer meat and have a deer to bring home to show his son. As soon as he made up his mind he slowly raised his gun and aims at the biggest doe out there and all of a sudden a big crash comes from his right and a huge buck plows out of the brush.
Matt lowered the gun and was sitting there staring at the monstrous buck. He didn’t know what to do but sit and watch then he realized that he was hunting and his loaded gun was ready to fire. The deer was walking when he raised his gun but he didn’t want to shoot unless the buck was completely still so he waited for a while, gun at the ready following the animals every move. Matt made a grunting noise to see if he could get the deer to stop walking and right as he did the deer stopped dead in its tracks and stood there staring at him and Matt stayed completely still making sure not to move otherwise he would spook the Beast. The deer finally put its head down and Matt could see the huge antlers the animal had and it made him nervous. When he pulled the gun up again and aimed it at the deer and clicked the safety off. Matt’s heart is pounding now and he can’t stop shaking so he puts his gun on the holder and takes aim again making sure it was right behind the bucks front shoulder. He takes a deep breathe puts his finger on the trigger. After one more deep breathe he squeezes the trigger and the monstrous bucks legs buckle and it collapses to the ground in a big heap. Matt is so happy that he almost jumps out of his deer stand and he goes to the deer to tag it.

After Matt tags the deer and drags it to his truck he calls his father and tells him to meet him out there so he can show what resulted from his long day of hunting. Matt got what he came for and is really happy. When his father got there he almost had a heart attack after seeing the giant deer. During the day he waited and let some nice looking deer go by him and at the end he got a giant buck that his father almost got but didn’t. Matt is proud and so is his father.

Matt then goes home and gets all his gear in the house and puts it all away and cleans his gun, he also gets the deer mounted so he will always have something to remind him of the day that he got “The Big One”.