Opening Day Nov.15/2006

It was Dad, Steve(My Cousin) Trevor(My Friend) and me. We all woke up around 4:30a.m. and were at Tim Horton's by 5:45a.m. all hyped up about the possibility of bagging the big boy! Once we finished our coffee's we ended up at our stands all situated and what not by 6:30a.m. We all had seen a few doe's when all of the sudden my cousin (Steve) informed all of us on the 2-way radios that he had a buck 25 yards away from him bedded down and he couldn't see it at the moment. We all thought Steve was kidding and were teasing him about the whole situation that we thought was a figment of his imagination. Mean while 4-5 doe's showed themselves out of the northern wood line which was 150 yds. north of where Steve was hunting. A few minutes felt like an hour and anxiety was killing me waiting for a buck to follow. Then all of the sudden Steve whispered on the radio that one of the doe's is headed towards the "bedded buck" which none of us believed. One minute after that I hear "BANG" and watch Steve stand up take a few steps forward and "BANG" then I hear him yell "YES,YES" and raise his gun up in the air. My dad was the first one to get to Steve and his first awesome trophy(a nice 6-point buck with an inside spread of approx. 10-11 inches!). My dad then informed Steve to shoot the buck one more time with his wicked side-arm (a .357 colt revolver) behind the shoulder to put the buck all the way out for the count. Steve did so and my dad started to gut the awesome Trophy. That is the moment I made the decision to get out of my stand and see Steve's Trophy. I knew that I should have stayed in my stand but my impatience won. Once Trevor got to me we both walked over to congratulate Steve and watch my dad finish gutting. At this time I saw Mike B. (old friend that went bad) standing on the south side of the wood line, so Trevor and I were walking in that direction when we saw Mike lay down on the ground and aim out in the bean-field to fire a shot at the "BIG-BOY" chasing a doe. He clearly missed. Trevor and I ran back towards my dad and I even yelled " shoot him it's the big-boy " because there is a ridge between my dad and the bean-field. The monster was heading from the field towards my stand which was between them and us. Trevor and Steve fired one shot each at the monster but clearly had missed and the monster and his mistress disappeared in the thicket UNDER MY STAND. This was probably the most frustrating hunting lesson (to stay in my stand) ever for me but it was also the most rewarding and proud. To watch the skills Steve has developed. He only has hunted the last 4 seasons with us and has shot at deer but never succeeded until this day. To see Steve (who 4 years ago knew nothing about whitetail deer or even hunting them) utilize and succeed with the skills he developed from hunting with dad and I is more rewarding than me shooting the monster whitetail, well at least for this year...