Sudden Silence

November 5th, 2016

- [ ] the eerie stillness is haunting me. moments ago I could hear my dad's footsteps trailing away and as I sit in the dark, I wait for the crunching of leaves, showing signs life in the woods. a deers footsteps.

- [ ] the highway tunes in again, I can hear the rushing of cars trying to get to work on time or dropping their kids off at school. I heard a gunshot, it's 7:31, just a minute into legal shooting time on the first day of the season. Another shot. It's 7:33, It sounds close. Hopefully my dads shot. If it was my dads shot it would run passed and over my ridge and I could get a shot on him. whhooooo, a few seconds pass and another whhooooo and another. I've heard at least 12 times an owl this morning. by this time he has let loose 3 more times. I hear twigs snapping. I grab my gun and start to think I'm stupid and to put it down, that it's just my dad telling me he shot one and needs help pulling it out. but it was walking around a lot. may more than my dad would have. he knows his way to my blind like the back of his hand. he's been hunting this land for 15 years. I turn and listen harder. It gets tough to breath when you hear something coming because you want to be quiet but you still need to breath. It would walk then stop like it was lost so I knew it wasn't my dad. I sat up in my chair and turned trying to see it. It was right in my blind spot and I made a ton of noise kinda hoping I could scare it off. one thing about hunting is I'm always scared it's something other than a deer, something bigger than me. then I heard it. It jumped and landed with a huge thud I felt the ground shake, only I didn't know it jumped. I thought it just took a step closer to me, it's prey. It jumped out of my blind spot and my caught sight of it mid flight. It was a good sized doe. I grabbed for my rifle trying to find it without taking my eyes off her because if I did I would lose sight of her, and the moment I did, I lost her. She was only 20 feet away in a clearing in front of my blind, I would have had a perfect shot, but she's gone. I look down at my phone to find 3 texts my dad sent just 3 minutes go.

- [ ] Had one walk by...I could not pick it up in the scope.

- [ ] It may come from behind to you.

- [ ] Keep your eyes open

- [ ] If I had been looking at my phone I would have known it was a deer. I would have known to be ready. I would have known to shoot.

- [ ] I spot something moving towards me up the ridge between the trees. It's the obvious shape of a big buck and my heart starts racing. I pull up my gun and try finding it in my scope. I'm having troubles and keep passing over it too fast and by the time I find it he walks behind a tree and turns the other direction. I become disappointed in myself and sit back down and not more than 2 minutes later a doe walks the same trail as the buck before her. I have troubles finding her in the scope too and as she walks behind a thick tree I turn to line up with the other side and get ready for when she walks out the other side. my heart stops. I freeze. the buck that walked away had circled back and had been starring me down, no more than 50 yards away. I get down on my knees and as I kneel I step on a stick snapping it with a loud crack. crap hailey! I thought to myself. he doesn't even flinch, he's starring hard into me and I pull up my remington 243. I can see the fear in his eyes but he's bold and sticking up for his doe. begging me not to shoot her and take him instead. I pull up and take a shot. ringing fills my ears as he jumps and takes off back the way he came. It was a hit. I text my dad.

- [ ] That was me, I hit.

- [ ] He replied, On my way.

- [ ] He came and I told him where I shot it and where he took off towards. He found bone at the shot site but very little blood. we followed where he went but never found anymore blood. I must have moved down too soon and hit the leg. Another deer I messed up on and made a simple mistake that changed his life. now there's a deer walking around with his leg blown off.