A friend invited me to go deer hunting one Saturday morning in late September. We parked the truck at the gate and quietly closed the doors of the truck before walking into the woods. The trail was illuminated by the moonlight, and we split up when we reached a crossroads. I reached my stand and placed the rifle inside, then climbed in myself. I opened the breech of my bolt action Mosin Nagant and loaded 2, 7.62 X 54 rounds inside. It was still dark, but I could still see across the field. I sat quietly enjoying the autumn air and the hope of what might come.

The sky became cloudy as the sun rose and I moved my head slowly to keep an eye on my surroundings. I heard footsteps in the brush and hoped that it would be a deer. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back, a buck was standing in the field. I peeked through my scope to judge it’s size and in the early light, I could almost tell that it was an 8 point buck. The deer started walking and went out of sight into the woods on the other side. “I should have shot” I thought. Unexpectedly, the deer wandered back into the field and this time, I could see that it was an 8 point and I took aim. The deer was facing me which is normally not an ideal target because of the bones but assumed that my rifle could handle it. I focused on the spot where I wanted to hit and squeezed the trigger until the rifle reported. Looking through the scope, I saw the deer jump and run off into the woods.
I sat in the stand and listened as the deer ran through the brush until it stopped. There was a pause and I wondered if I could have missed the deer. Was my scope sighted in correctly? Then I heard a collapse in the woods. It was time to begin the search. I walked to where the deer stood when I shot it but it was still early in the morning and I did not see any blood. I walked into the woods and followed the path of least resistance until I saw white in the corner of my eye. The white stood out from the surrounding woods and as I approached, I realized it was my deer. I took hold of the antlers and marveled at my first buck.
The hard work began after the pictures. We drug the deer from the woods and then brought the truck down to load it up. Our next stop was the processor. The deer weighed in at 160 pounds and they sent the antlers off to be cleaned. Since then, we have enjoyed some smoked tenderloins, deer spaghetti, and deer sausage wraps. Deer season is off to a great start but there are even larger bucks have been spotted on camera which draw me out to continue the hunt.