Opening day, the weather was cloudy and calm. I hadn’t seen a deer all day, but in the late evening the deer were going crazy around my stand. I heard a deer grunt to my right, then some thrashing and running, then a bleat to my left. I think I saw to my left a deer foot at one point but it was in the thick brush and I couldn’t see much. I felt like someone was going to jump out from behind a tree and shout “gotcha!” I had never heard deer grunt or bleat in real life like that. It was pretty cool and definitely got my heart racing. I saw two deer run by my left going pretty fast. I thought to myself, man, if I don’t get a shot at one of these deer I’m going to have nothing to show for all this action I’m seeing! Finally one of the does came walking back through and I spotted her. She wasn’t paying any attention to me, and I swear she shoot there waiting for me to get my gun up, sight her in and fire. It was close to dark when I shot her. She was about 40 yards away from me and slightly quartered. She didn’t run far, only maybe about 60 yards, and ran into a very thick area away from the trail out. Last time I shot a deer he ran uphill towards the road. I guess they don’t all do that. 
I was the first in our group to shoot a deer opening day and since the other guys weren’t seeing much, I was very thankful for the opportunity to see some deer and to shoot one!
While sitting in my stand Monday afternoon, I was reading Pat McManus’s book “They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They?”, the story of “My First Deer, and Welcome To It”. I was trying to read as silently as I could, but I kept laughing to myself. Seriously, my stand and the tree were starting to shake the more I laughed! I was trying hard to calm down and stop laughing, but it’s a really funny story. I figured I should take a break from reading so I could stop laughing, otherwise I’d never see a deer! I paused to look up and around at the woods (like I do every page or two) and I looked to my left, then in front, then over to my right – and that’s when I saw him. Only about 25 yards away, a fork buck was staring at me. His nostrils were flaring and he was bobbing his head trying to figure out what he was looking at. Last year I missed a deer because I foolishly thought I could get my gun up, get the deer in my sight and shoot it before it could react and run away from me… I underestimated just how fast deer move! THIS time, I was much more stealthy. Firstly, I didn’t take my eyes off him. Every time he looked away from me, that’s when I’d move. He looked away, I set my book down. He looked back at me so I froze. He looked away again, I reached for my gun. Luckily I could see everything in stand in my periphery so I could keep my eyes glued on him. He turned broadside to me and put his head behind a tree – show time! In the most fluid and silent motion I’ve ever achieved with my rifle, I brought my rifle up, looked down through the scope and the crosshairs were already on the magic spot. It was so effortless and flawless that I fired in just mere seconds. It was a great shot, too. Double-lunged him and he didn’t run far before crashing. 25 maybe 30 yards. He was very easy to find. The blood trail was like a rolled out red carpet leading me to my deer. It was perfect. That is, until he needed to be dragged out of the woods. He was $%^@# heavy! But totally worth every heart-pounding, breathless minute of it.
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Congrats Sharon!