Narrative

Buck Fever

Butterflies danced in my stomach; my body began to shake uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop this odd sensation. This feeling known as Buck Fever.

The deer came strolling in as my dad was standing up and stretching. I remember telling him to sit down as I pointed toward the bait pile where it stood eating, not even bothering to notice us there. As I lifted the gun toward the window of the stand, Buck Fever kicked in. Trust me this is not a rare occurrence; this happens to people all the time. Mainly it happens to hunters before they shoot their first big animal. Which pertained exactly to my situation. But many times the Buck Fever causes people to miss. Not me.

I set the gun as gently as I could on the window sill as if to not make a sound. Pointing the gun at the deer I take a deep breath and look through the scope of the old 30-30 rifle. At this point the buck had turned and started walking directly away. My dad took our call and as he called to the deer it stopped turned just enough so I could barely see the broad side of the deer. The shot had to be perfect. So I gently squeezed the trigger and “BANG”. The bullet sped through the brisk air, bringing the fatal projectile through the deer’s body. Entering just in front of the hind leg and piercing straight through the stomach and heart.

Once I saw the hind legs of the deer kick out in pain I knew I had him. I was pumped; my dad was too. We celebrated with a high-five and a soda while we waited to make sure the deer was dead before we tracked it. Even though it was hard to contain my excitement, I made it through the 30 minutes we had to wait.  Finally dad decided we could go find the deer and once he said this I was already out the door of the stand.

Even though the shot was perfect, there was one problem… it didn’t leave much of a blood trail. The reason this happen is the only place the blood could really come out was the exit hole since the bullet enter though the stomach. Plus there was no snow on the ground, making it twice as hard to find the blood trail. While we were searching the woods I began to doubt myself. I was thinking that I had missed even though that wasn’t possible. My dad and I split up searching for the small buck. While I was standing on a log scanning the ground below me I heard, “Hey Nate look what I found!”

“What?” I yelled back as I began walking toward him.

As I saw his face that was filled with happiness. I knew he had found it. My eyes followed his finger pointed at the brown lump  on the ground. Then I shouted “Yes!” and thanked God for the beautiful animal.