First Deer

Mr. Tommy Sullivan called up my dad and invited us to his hunting lease in St. Francisville for youth weekend. We accepted the invitation and loaded down the Chevy Silverado. When we arrived at Mr. Tommy's place, all i had was a shotgun so he lended me a Remington .308 model seven rifle, which belonged to his nephew Drew. It was Halloween (2009), and as a freshmen in highschool I was wondering if I should have stayed home and ran around with my friends. I climbed up in a box stand with my dad and looked out over a beautiful green plot. I was very glad that I came. My mom called my dad on the phone and I suggested that he not answer it, but of course he did. She wanted to talk to me so I took the phone. She was talking very loudly and could not hear my whispers, she was out shopping and asking me about school clothes I needed. I gave the phone back to Dad, aggravated and thinking that we wouldn't see any deer after all that racket. I was able to relax and enjoy the beauty of the earth, "West Feliciana is God's country" as Mr. Tommy said. My dad took out an apple and cut it up with his old pocket knife. As I finished the last piece, four does came out from the right, one after the other. My dad watched in his binoculars as a four point followed them out, and then a big buck. "It's an eight point Ruthie, that's your deer." I leaned forward with the gun against my shoulder, and got him in the scope. He was huge and I was just about hyperventilating. "Take a deep breath, thumb off the safety...whenever you're ready.." And before he could say another word, BANG! The monster took a few last stumbles and laid down at the edge of the food plot. "I got him, right!?" "Yeah you got him, good shot buddy!" I put the empty .308 round in my pocket and begged Dad to let me climb down. It felt like we waited forever & I promise you, that sucker was not getting back up! When I stood up, my legs were weak and I practically jumped out of the stand. We walked over to the buck and nudged him--dead as a doornail! We took a picture and drug him to the middle of the plot. Mr. Tommy came riding up on the golf cart with a big grin, chuckling. "When I told you to shoot anything you wanted, I didn't expect you to shoot the biggest deer on my property!" He was so excited; Mr. Tommy loves seeing kids fired up about things like this. He helped me skin it so we could get it mounted and processed. I truly appreciate all of the hard work he put in, before my kill and after my kill. The deer weighed over 200lbs (we burned up the golf cart trying to haul him up the hill), 17 inch inside spread, with thick, long tines. He had nice symmetry. A very mature deer too, we did not get to age him by the teeth, but by looking at him you can tell he is 3 and a half or 4 and half years old, at least! This is one of my greatest memories still, it was a proud day for all of us! I put the picture in my binder and all the boys at school were jealous. Deer slayer was my new nickname.