Annie’s first deer hunt, October 2007
Let me start by saying I have been traipsing around the woods of Colorado, Elk hunting for 6 years now. I DO NOT have one in the bag. I have smelled, spooked, tracked and pushed them, but have not killed an Elk – YET! But I did get a deer, and here’s the story.
My husband Barney and I spotted a group of deer across a meadow and decided we could move in on them. We pushed them a bit as we tried to “sneak” (they were fully aware of us, just didn’t care that much – deer are very curious. Clue. Curious = Dumb) across the snow covered meadow. The deer stopped about 50 yards away, there was a fence post to rest my gun and everything was looking good. Let me remind you that I had hunted but never shot a big game animal. I was VERY nervous and filled with adrenaline! I steadied the gun on the fence post. I looked through the scope and put the crosshairs through the kill zone. I was ready! I pulled the trigger. CLICK.
I looked at my husband, he forgot to put a bullet in the chamber! Yes yes, I know what you are thinking. Why didn’t I KNOW that there wasn’t a bullet in the chamber? Because! I am a girl, and it is freezing out, and I am billowing through snowdrifts and swamps, climbing over fallen trees…. The least the guy can do is load my rifle (well he can carry it for me sometimes too). So he did, he had loaded my gun back at the truck, but apparently he had forgotten to pop one in the chamber.
What ensued next was a “discussion” between husband and wife. Clue. Discussion = Fight. Deer were running away and I was standing there frazzled! We got it together and moved on. Deer luckily don’t tend to move too far before they get “curious” again. We set up again. Fencepost, crosshairs, deer 100 yards ahead broadside– pulled the trigger, and dropped her! This time around things went right. We got to the animal and she was dead. We proceeded to skin and gut the animal. We removed the heart and liver. It is very intense to hold an animal’s heart in your hand right after you kill it. It’s a far cry from what this girl from suburbia ever thought she would be up to. This is always a good time to give thanks to the animal for sacrificing their life for your food, a practice we always like to include. This really does make you think how FAR removed most people in the US are from knowing where there food comes from. FYI- I keep the heart for soups and stuffing. I use the liver to make a liver parmesan – I know how it sounds but it’s really good! The End.