After 4 years of bowhunting without taking a shot in the field, I finally got a chance at a deer. I have always seen plenty of deer when hunting but I could never quite put all the right moves together to get a shot off.

I am a freshman in college this year and I wasn' t anticipating much hunting this year. Two weekends ago, I had a chance to go home and do some hunting on Sunday the second. My dad wanted to go with me and video tape the hunt from our " tree house." My dad and I built a big 8' x8' tree stand in a large oak tree that is in the middle of a big funnel on the side of a field on some of our land. This stand is awsome, we could sleep comfortably in the thing if we wanted too.

Anyway, my dad and I got up in the morning about an hour before dark and got our stuff together. We have a " cabin" about 400 yards from the woodlot that I hunted in that Sunday. We got into the stand about 25 minutes before dark and as I was getting my gloves and hat on, we heard some deer coming across a barbed wire fence 50 yards from the stand. I slowly and quietly got my bow and knocked an arrow. My dad turned the camera on and got that ready to go. THen it was time to wait for light. When it got to be light out, there were no deer to be seen. My guess is they heard me getting ready in the stand and slowly worked away from us.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a deer coming up on the stand behind me. I turned my head and saw a nice doe coming up the logging trail toward the stand. The deer was browsing the ground for food as it worked its way toward me. I waited for it to go behind some trees and then I stood up. The deer continued down the logging trail to within 18 yards of the stand. It stopped and started eating something on the ground. The only problem was that it was facing me. After several minutes the deer turned broadside and gave me a chance to draw back. I tried to draw back several times but each time, the deer would look in my direction. Finally, I was able to get to full draw. By this time I was shaking like a leaf because I had never gotten to full draw on a deer before.

I finally got my shot off but I hit the deer too far back. I knew right away that I had gut shot the deer, I was just shaking so bad from adrenaline. I don' t know how this happened but the arrow went through the stomach, and the last part of the liver. I got so lucky. The deer ran about 5 seconds, stopped, and fell over dead. The deer died exactly 40 yards from the tree.

I was so excited. I felt bad that I made a bad shot, but the deer died very quickly so I didn' t feel as bad as if it had ran for a long time. My dad and I went and got my arrow, went over to the deer, and he made me drag it to the field. He went and got his truck and helped me clean the deer in the field. Then we went and registered the deer.

When we got home, my dad and I watched the movie a few times and I took a long nap. I felt great. My second time in the woods the entire season, my first ever shot at an animal, my first bow killed deer. I have to admit I made a bad shot. But it turned out ok in the end.

I will never forget that day and I am glad that my dad was able to be there with me.