It is about 5:30 in the morning when my uncle yells at me and tells me to get up. He said, “It’s time to go hunting brother.” I get up and start to put my clothes on when my uncle walks in and was like “dang its cold outside.” (And when he says it’s cold then it is cold)
I heard him so I go ahead and put an extra layer of clothes on. So I’m wearing sweat pants, jeans, two shirts, my coveralls and my carrhart. I also have two pairs of socks on and my 1000 grain boots and my insulated orange toboggan. I put all these clothes on because sitting in a tree for three or four hours when it’s below freezing can get very cold.

My uncle and I cook us up a liver mush and egg sandwich before we head out. Usually what I do is I put the liver mush in the pan and put the eggs with it. And as it is all cooking up, I chop it all up and mix together. When you do this, it all clumps up. It’s easier that way because then it’s just like putting an omelet on toast. And you don’t have to worry about your eggs falling apart because the meet holds it together. After we eat, we headed out to the building where the guns are.

My uncle opens the gun safe and hands me his marlin 243. Caliber rifle and he gets his Winchester 25.06. He tells me “be back here at nine thirty, and if you shoot anything call me.” I said, “Ok, same for you.”

We both leave and go to our tree stand. His is right in the middle of the tater patch so his spot is really good but my stand is on the power lines. My stand isn’t technically a tree stand. My stand is a tripod out in the middle of everything where I have Australian pees, soy beans, and collared greens – stuff that deer really love.

I walk all the way to my stand and put my gun on the string and climb up. I put it one the string because one, it is very dangerous to climb up a stand with a loaded gun, two, it’s against the law not to have a string, and three, it is just hard to climb up a stand in pitch black darkness with a gun in one hand and just using one hand to climb. When I get to the top I pull my gun up and lay it on the gun rack that I mounted on my tripod.

It is still dark out so I sit there and take me about a thirty minute nap until the sun is peaking through the trees. I woke up because the little birds and the squirrels were playing and woke me up. I just sat there and watched the little squirrels chase each other around and around tree after tree. Then they would turn around and go the other way. It is funny to watch them. It is especially when they run into each other and fall out of the tree. When they do that they just start chattering and run for the closest tree possible. One time I had one come up my tree and fall out because it saw me and jumped. It was hilarious.

But all of a sudden everything got quiet. And usually when that happens then something is up. I listen to see if I could hear anything. Well I hear leaves scrunching about fifty yards away I guess. So I got my gun up and got it ready. I can’t visualize the deer yet because it is behind all the trees. I wasn’t even sure what it was yet. I didn’t know if it was a deer or not because it was still kind of dark.

I hear it messing around in my plot so I peak over there very slowly. There were three does and a spike. A spike is a buck with just two spikes on its head without any runners, g2’s, g3’s or g4’s. I wasn’t out there to get a big buck unless it was big. I decided to get the one doe that was right up front because she was the biggest and she would have the most meat.

Well I get my 243. Off the rack and raise it up very slowly. I wanted to shoot in the head so I wouldn’t damage any of the amazing deer meat. So I get it up and I put the crosshairs right in front of her ear and she starts walking. I didn’t want to be to loud trying to get her to stop so while I had the crosshairs on her head I bellered very soft. BAAAA!!! She turned right to me. I put it right between her eyes and dropped her with out her even knowing it. KABOOOMMMM!!!!! All I heard was a crunch from where she hit the ground and rolled. I didn’t even see her fall all I seen was her laying there because it just went so fast and my adrenaline was kicking like crazy. My heart was beating faster than anything in my life.

After I waited about ten minutes when I knew she wasn’t going anywhere I started to get up to go examine her and about 400 yards away I hear a big BOOM!! I figured it was my uncle but it could have been across the creek. I went out to her and because of my family with all the pastors that are in it I was raised to say a prayer over everything I kill. I prayed over the deer and said the Lords Prayer and Amen. “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed thee by name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, I give this day my daily bread and forgive my trespasses, as we give those who’ve trespassed against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen. I said how it would be used to feed me and many other people. Not just killed to be killed. I called my uncle and said, “hey, I got me a big ‘ole doe. I’d say she weighs about 130 pounds.” He came to me with his old Chevrolet and turns out he got one too. So we went home and cleaned them both. While we were cleaning them my other uncle and cousin came up with two more does so we clean all four them and grilled up the little stuff after. And cooked a lot of the meat for the thanksgiving supper...

THE END