A First Buck, and the Two Old Brothers Who Made the Morning

It was deer season, and we were in the mountains. A family friend had been kind enough to lend us the use of their cabin up near our zone so wouldn’t need to camp. Thus the hunt had gone from my father, my sister and I; to us my grandfather, my great uncle, and an old friend of my fathers. We had been hunting for a few days, there was a bit of sign but we’d yet to see hide or hair. I was anxious as it was the first season in which I was hunting, previously I’d only helped haul and skin. The autumnal air was cold the day I went hunting with the old men. I had put on my jacket to protect from the chill and had put a few rounds into the jackets pockets. This was because we would be heading out in a truck and I wasn’t to have a loaded rifle in the vehicle. My grandfather and great uncle clambered up into the front seats and I into the back. The outside was cold and the old men were colder still, so they turned up the heat in the truck, and after about an hour of driving I was too hot and removed my jacket. In my anxiety I kept one round to fiddle with so that my hands had something to do. Then it happened, my grandfather stopped the truck“Deer”Sure enough walking further away from us through the trees was a buck. I leapt from the truck rifle in hand and made to follow. In my haste I did two things; firstly, when I left the truck and did not bring my jacket, secondly, I made lots of noise. I fumbled sliding my one round into my rifle while moving towards the buck. It turned towards me as I slid the bolt home and brought the butt to my shoulder. I aimed for the heart and squeezed the trigger. While I missed the heart, I had blown through the bone of one of its fore legs. When I fired the rifle it took off in the direction it was facing and not directly away from me. This wouldn’t have mattered except that by now my grandfather had made it to me. I turned to him and asked if he had a round I could use. He looked at me for what felt like eternity, taking me in in all my foolishness and youthful haste. He then handed me his rifle and, taking mine from me, told me to take the shot. I hurriedly brought the unfamiliar weapon to my shoulder and took a rushed shot that I barely aimed at the torso. By some miracle I hit it. I once again missed where I was aiming, and took out the throat instead, so it made some distance before succumbing, but not much. I then set to work field dressing my first buck, I had watched my father several times but hadn’t done it myself. Luckily I was with two hunters whom had been at it for more than double the number of years I’d lived. So I asked their advice in field dressing and went to it. I pulled out multiple organs, and had asked them multiple times if we had gotten it all only to be told to what I was missing. Eventually when I asked if we were done, I was told to get it to the truck and into the bed. I got the surprisingly heavy deer back to the truck and into the bed with the help of some fellow hunters that had happened upon us while I was field dressing the animal. We drove back to the cabin to find my father, sister and my father’s friend back from their morning hunt and making breakfast. The old men had had an exciting and longer than expected morning, so they proceeded to tell my father the good news, eat the breakfast he had just made himself and then promptly fall asleep on the couch. My father went outside with me and helped me string it up to a tree head down for skinning, also commenting on the weight of the deer, while the old men ate. Unfortunately their being tired from an exciting morning didn’t start when we got back to the cabin, it had started when I had asked for the fourth time if I was done taking organs out of the deer and they had said yes. Now you may be wondering how I missed organs, I mean they are fairly obvious. If you put yourself in the mind of a boy on his fist actual hunt fresh off the excitement of the experience I described, a boy who has pulled several hunks of flesh who's names he is too excited to currently remember, and then he peers into the body of a deer and sees an unpierced diaphragm. I think it was rather understandable to miss every organ beyond the diaphragm. My father was not impressed and went to ask the two old men why they had let me leave the diaphragm intact. It was at this point that we walked into living room and find the two old men, the two brothers, completely passed out in mirrored poses on either side of the old floral couch they laid upon. Most people will never forget their first hunt, but I reckon I’ve a better story than most.