It is a cold November morning while I am walking out to the deer stand. This isn’t my first time coming out to hunt, but it is the first time I get to carry a gun. I am going out with my grandpa Bob. The temperature was cold the night before because all the leaves make a crunching noise when I step on them. While we walking out I start to break a little sweat which isn’t good because once I sit down I will get cold. I could feel the cold air against my cheeks and  I could see my breath. 

Now that we made it out to the stand I get this weird feeling in my stomach. The stand sits right in front of a tall spruce tree overlooking the woods. There are five trails that that run through the woods making me have good shooting areas. The biggest trail runs north and south and that is where I see the most deer. The deer cross that trail mostly in the morning and at night, working their way out to the field to feed. The other four trails don’t get as much deer action as the rest, but just in case there is a deer that goes across them I always stay alert.
We have probably  sat in the stand for only a hour when we see the first deer. The deer was running, so I couldn’t get a shot at it. A little bit later, we see another deer that comes out and this one isn’t going anywhere; it is just feeding away and standing out in the open.

My grandpa says, “Zach, do you see that deer out there?”
I said back, “ I sure do Papa.”
I reached down for my gun slowly so the deer couldn’t see me move. I told myself to take it easy, don’t rush the shot, and also don’t panic. It’s going to be okay. I heard Bob say to me, “Take the shot whenever you are ready.”

When I was ready, I took the safety off, and I could feel the cold metal on my hands. I eased the trigger back and when the trigger finally went all the way back it made a huge cracking noise. Right after the bang I was a little nervous; I was scared I was going to miss the deer. Then it just stood there, but it didn’t look right so I pulled the bolt back and reloaded just in case. Right when I reloaded, I saw the deer fall. I looked over at my grandpa and he had a little tear in his eye and a huge grin on his face. We both looked at eachother then and he gave me a big old hug. I didn’t really understand at first why he was crying, but then I let it sink in. Then I realized he taught me how to hunt and passed the tradition on to the next generation. My grandpa and I are really close and we do mostly everything together. He taught me how to shoot a gun and everything about hunting. I am one of three grandsons that he has but I do the most with him and I am the only one that hunts with him. After I thought about it even more he was just excited for me.

I looked through the binoculars at the deer that was lying there still moving its head up and down. My grandpa said, “You must have shot it in the guts,.”

The deer is dead

When I got down from the stand and started to walk towards the deer, I became really antsy and just wanted to run down there. We finally got to the deer, which was about one hundred or so yards away, and I saw this deer had antlers on it. It was just a little spike buck, but it was really cool that my first deer was a buck. The antlers were a pale brown. Since this was my first time shooting a deer, I had no idea how to gut it out, so I watched my grandpa to see how it’s done. While my grandpa was gutting out the deer he explained how to do it and let me do some of it. Once it was all cleaned out, we went back to my aunt’s house and had some lunch, and most importantly, cookies. Everyone asked me if I got anything and I could now finally say yes! My Uncle and Grandpa were talking later and I could both hear them say, “Well hunting in this family will now last a little longer.”

After lunch, we went and picked up the deer. Once the deer was loaded in the truck, my grandpa and I walked back while my uncle drove the truck. Walking out of the woods was a little better than walking in. I wasn’t cold, and I was all hyped up because I shot my first deer. The trees were still blowing around, but now the wind was at my back helping me along We took the deer back to the house where my grandpa took a picture of me and the deer, and that photo still sits on his fridge to this day. Deer hunting with him will never get old and I look forward to it every year.