The Story of the Buck on Our Wall

She was the oldest of three, with a brother younger by 2 1/2 years and a sister younger by 4 1/2 years.  When she was 12 she was one of three young ladies to take the first Hunter Safety Course offered at the hunting club to which her father belonged, with about a dozen or so young men.   She hunted a few seasons with her father, then her brother joined them for a few seasons.  She never had a chance to shoot at a deer, despite being a patient and quiet hunter.

Well, one year, her father and brother decided to go hunting in the Big North Woods with her godfather/uncle, cousin, and other men in the family.  No girls allowed.  Not even a girl willing to carry a gun and sit in the cold dark waiting for the sun to rise and then wait for some deer to come along.  Not even a girl willing to help in the drives later in the days toward the end of the season.  Now, she knows her Dad didn't want her hearing the guy talk between hunts, especially after a few beers!  He would do all he could to protect the innocence of his sweet little girl.

Her senior year of high school, a handsome young man asked her out.  He was a serious hunter, trapper, and fisherman.  In fact, just before he asked her on that first date, he had been hunting out West with his Dad and uncle.  A year later, he and his uncle went bear hunting in the neighboring country to the north.  Sometimes he and she hunted together.  In fact, she split her time hunting with her Dad and her sweetheart.  Sadly, they never all hunted together.

That second year of dating, was the year mentioned above.

The night before opening morning, she carefully laid out her apparel and gear.  She checked it out once, twice, and envisioned her routine to quietly leave the house without disturbing her mother and sister in the wee hours of the morning before the break of dawn.  She went to bed early and set her alarm to go off at probably the earliest time in her life to that moment.

The next morning, she arose to realize she had slept past the alarm!  Oh, no! SHE WAS LATE!

She called him and apologized.  He laughed and said it was alright and that she should just get going; he would wait for her.

She quickly slipped on all her hunting clothes and grabbed all her gear and quietly slipped out of the house.  She put her gear in her car and slowly drove down the driveway, waiting to turn on her headlights after she was sure they would not shine on the house, then she eased up to the speed limit on the country road, and then the highway.  Suddenly, she realized that she didn't remember handling her gun!  She pulled over and checked.  Sure enough, she had not grabbed her five-shell shotgun!

Now, there was another problem.  The transmission of her car was out and she could not drive reverse.  The highway seemed wide enough that she should be able to carefully make a U-turn right here, if she went far enough over on the right shoulder at the beginning of the hard turn left.  It would save a few minutes from going all the way to the little village up the road and turning in the high school parking lot.  So, she put this plan in action... and got stuck in the opposite ditch as her turn was too wide for the road!  OH, NO!

She was very near a dairy farm.  She humbly trudged up to the farmhouse.  No fear of waking anyone as the barn lights and kitchen lights were brightly shining already for the morning milking.  She asked to use their phone to call her sweetheart and explain her embarrassing situation.  The farmer offered to pull her out when he was done milking.

But, her sweetheart, poor guy, was quite twitterpated, and he kindly told her he would be right there; not to worry.  He borrowed someone's truck and came to her rescue.  Then, he told her she should not go back for her gun.  He would lend her one when they got to his house.

Oh, by now his parents' kitchen was full of hunters.  There was a wonderful country breakfast.  She was much too uptight to swallow anything and passed on a hearty breakfast.  There was no time anyway!  The men did tease her a bit, but as they were still strangers, they held back.  Besides, she was likely the first girl or woman to ever join them!  Good gentlemen, all of them.

In the car, she had decided that she should just sit in her stand, gunless.  She was quite determined this would be a just punishment for being so foolish and told him so.  Now, he finally showed his frustration.  He thrust a single shell shotgun at her and told her she better use it if she had a chance to kill a deer!  He was quite serious.  She decided it was best to comply.

Off they went.  The arrangement was that he would leave her at her stand and then go deeper into the woods, out to the swamp, and she would not budge until he returned for her.

Her spot was next to a small man-made pond at the edge of the woods, two fields, and a swampy area.  She settled into a comfortable position and waited for dawn to break.

Everything was very still at first and it was COLD!  She sat very still and tried to pick out things in her surroundings.  Gradually, her eyes adjusted and steadily dawn broke, slowly lighting the world.  She was startled by an owl that swooshed by and settled down in a tree in the woods.  Then, some birds started their morning songs and gossip.  Squirrels and maybe rabbits started to stir.  Now, she could see her breath hanging in heavy clouds in the air close to her face.  It was really COLD!  When she needed to shift her weight or rearrange her legs, she did so

                                   ever

                                                     so

                                                                   slowly

so as not to make a discernable noise.  She wiggled her toes in her boots to keep the blood flowing and discreetly exercised her fingers so that no motion could be detected.

There is nothing in her experience as peaceful as sitting in this setting and experiencing that wonderous time between dawn and actual sunrise!  She offered prayers of gratitude for all of God's creation. The majesty of God is undeniable in such a setting.

Well, she heard it before she could pick it out with her eyes.  Across the pond,

                 something was snapping branches.

                                      Something bigger than the squirrel that had been scolding her and running around from tree to tree near her.

She concentrated her vision on the area and scanned it, careful not to move her head.

Finally, a beautiful buck broke into her vision.  He showed no sign that he detected her presence.

Immediately, her heart began to race and she became conscious of her breathing.  She needed to remain calm and motionless.  He kept moving towards her, around the edge of the pond.  He was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  Eventually, she could count the points on his majestic rack.  He was an eight point buck!  He was sturdy, with a strong neck.  He kept coming and did not even realize she was there.

Slowly,

          slowly,

                    slowly, she raised her gun from her lap to her shoulder.  She lined the sight to his left shoulder and followed him as he continued to come ever closer.  She continued to breath as sofltly as possible and to calm her heart as best she could.  She prayed that if it were God's will, she would cleanly kill this perfect creature with her one shot.

She carefully released the safety, as soundlessly as possible.

                   He may have perked his ears at that, but decided the noise came from a little woodland creature or something.

                               He began to graze at some tall grasses growing between the shore of the pond and the field.

She continued to wait patiently for her one shot opportunity.

                                  She began to remind herself that she must squeeze the trigger gently,

                                                  careful not to jerk the gun.

She was thanking God for this experience too!

          The buck was seeming to slowly angle away from her, still grazing casually,

                  still oblivous to his danger.

It was time.

                    She squeezed the trigger,

                                           the gun pounded into her shoulder,

                                                                         and the shot blasted loudly through the air.

The buck jerked up his head, looked straight at her, took a whiff, snapped up his tail, and bounded away from her.

          She had to empty her barrel and reload.

By the time she had a second shell in the gun, the buck was out of range.

       He bounded into the woods.

About a half an hour later, she heard shooting behind her, in the general direction of the buck's path (if he stayed on a straight trajectory) and in the general direction of where she thought her sweetheart was sitting.

As the morning went on, the sun eventually rose to a mostly cloudless sky.  The mists of the dew rising dissipated.  It was still cold, but mostly from not moving.  The sun even warmed her right side a bit.  She continued to scan her surroundings, careful to move very slowly when shifting her weight, wiggling her fingers, or moving her arms a bit, and to make no noise.  She reviewed her experience with the buck again and again.  She continued to praise God for these glorious surroundings.

Through this entire morning, once leaving her home, she was oblivious to the actual time.  She left that for her sweetheart to track.

As the morning continued, she heard shots here and there, sometimes she was sure made by others in their party, sometimes from the neighbors' lands.

After a few hours, he came back for her.  She could see his blaze orange clothes were covered in blood.

She did not speak until he came right up to her.  He said he thought he heard her shoot and asked if she had seen anything.  She just said she missed one, and then said it was obvious he had not only seen one, but been busy dressing one!  She asked what he got.

Well, he had quite a story to tell!

They began to walk to the hunting cabin and he quietly, but very excitedly told his story.

He had heard her shot.  About a half an hour later, a beautiful eight point buck broke into his sight.  He killed it.  While he was dressing it, he was startled by another buck breaking into his area.  It was an even bigger buck!  ELEVEN POINTS!  He grabbed his gun and killed that one too!

When they went back to bring them out of the woods, she affirmed that the "smaller" one, the eight pointer, was indeed the one she had missed.

The eight point rack only was mounted.

The eleven point buck's head was mounted.

The spring after the next gun deer season, he asked her to marry him and she accepted his proposal.

The head mount did not fit in the apartments they lived in as their first two children were born.

Eventually, while pregnant with their third child, they bought their first house.  The head mount then was moved from his parents' basement and has had a place of prominence in all three of their homes.

When they exposed the original log walls of this old farmhouse, it finally looked at home.

There ends the story of how this one buck came to be on our wall.

He has company and that is another story that only his hunter can tell.