There was a time in my life I lived and breathed deer hunting, from the end of hunting season until the long awaited opening day. This is the time I would spend looking over numerous outdoor magazines, plotting strategies such as blind locations, scent control clothing. I would spend untold hours in sporting goods stores dreaming about the latest gadget that would bring deer closer or to be able to shoot further. I had to have the latest gear, a rifle that would shoot flat out, zeroed in at 200 yards or a "Matthews" cross-bow, (in Arkansas, use of Cross-bow is legal). Hunting.....that time honored skill that goes back to the beginning of man. My wife use to tell her friends that she was a "Deer hunting widow"......Then it ended.
Opening day of archery season, just a slight hint of daylight in the east. I'm in my blind, 20 feet in the air, eyes and ears atoned to my surroundings, my cross-bow leaning in the corner. I think back of all the times I've spent practicing in my back yard with that bow, first 10 yards, than 20, 30 and 40, I was confident I could hit vital organs at 40 yards, arrow after arrow was hitting the spot, I was ready. I had the basic necessities to spend all day, my day, the opening day in my stand. Most deer are taken on the first couple of days, until they get wise and avoid areas where they smell the scent of man.
It's getting lighter in the east, birds are starting to chirp and are busy scourging for food. I reach down into the backpack laying on the floor and grab a pop tart and start nibbling on it, thinking this is the best pop tart I've ever tasted, they say food taste better when you are outside and I believe it.
From the darkness first comes shadows, then the faint outlines of trees and shrubbery, again I reach into the backpack and this time I pull out a range finder. I start pinpointing distances from my stand, that shrub is 20 yards, that tree 25 and so on until I have the area around my stand memorized, if any deer should walk out I will know immediately at what distances it is and this tells me what pin on my cross-bow sight to place on the deer for that true kill.
A noise and I instantly freeze. I feel my pulse increase and try mentally to slow it down, but it's no use, slowly I move my eyes to the source of the sound, leaves being stepped on, a small twig breaking, and yet I see nothing. Without taking my eyes from the spot, I start reaching for the cross-bow and then it appears, a cotton-tail. I smile and let out the breath of air I was holding without knowing it, my body starts to relax, my eyes wander to the left and there she is.
A doe standing broadside with her head back looking over her shoulder watching that same cotton tail. Oh, what beauty, what splendor, she doesn't even know that I've spotted her. She is standing beside a tree I've marked off as being 25 yards, an easy shot. I can feel a slight tremble in my hands, my heart is pounding, I can feel the blood surging through my body. I have the cross-bow in my hands without knowing how it got there, I look down at it and think here it is, the time I've been waiting for, I slowly bring the bow up and rest the 25 yard sight pin on the area just behind the front leg. My breathing is calm, my hands are steady, everything around me disappears as I concentrate on that one spot. I take a small breath of air and hold it and slowly squeeze the trigger to take up the slack, I can feel the trigger stop its movement, it's at the point where the arrow will be released, just a fraction of an inch more and the arrow will hit home.
I see movement just below her chest, another set of legs coming toward her out of the brush. I hesitate, unsure what to do, I start to ease up on the trigger and then I see a baby fawn peak its head around its mother watching that same rabbit. My heart skips a beat thinking of the horrible death that fawn would face if I had taken her mother. I watch mother and fawn as her head comes down and she smells her baby to assure it is safe. I watch for a little while longer until mother and fawn ease back into the brush. I'm thinking is this really what I want to do, take a mother from it's baby and call it a sport. There comes a time in life, you could call it a changing of the season, when you know that's it, I've had enough!
The next couple of weeks, I gathered all my hunting equipment, placed an ad in the newspaper and held a yard sale. I didn't keep anything, what didn't sell, I gave away to friends and family.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2009 07:27PM by Wayne in BC.
Alright here's my first story.... 
:]
N/T 
