The slashing was wide open and silent. The only noticeable thing in the whole slashing was the slight bit of blaze-orange that Kenny was wearing. There was a slight breeze and birds chirping. The slashing seemed as if it were frozen in time. Nothing moved, the snow made all the ground look the same. Nothing moved until I saw a flash of brown in the trees that laid across the clearing from me.

I quickly focused in on the area that the brown flash had come from but could see no resemblance of a deer. All a saw was woods. My heart was pounding very fast now but began to slow because I did not think that the flash was a deer. I glassed the section of woods that the flash of brown had come from, but still seen nothing until a brown dot moved on a tree. I focused in on the dot, but it looked the size of an ant. I continued to follow the dot but is stayed in the trees. The dot was just a squirrel. I went back to scanning the opening with my bare eyes.

I had almost forgotten about the squirrel when I saw another flash. I looked again at the tree line but saw nothing. All I saw were trees, until there was a slight bit of movement. Without any magnification I could only see that something was moving. I glassed the area with my binoculars and saw a deer far off in the brush. The brush that surrounded the deer was too thick to shoot through. I had to wait. The shot would be long even if the deer was not in brush, so I did not try to shoot it. I was going to wait to see if a better shot would open. I watched the deer for what seemed hours, just looking through my scope.
I was watching the deer feed on every plant it could get its mouth around. I never thought that there could be another deer in the slashing. I viewed the deer intently, but it would not move to an opening. The deer had no idea that I was there and just ate with no fear. I felt like I was watching a nature show. I never had a deer so calm in my scope before. It was just in its habitat with nothing to bother it. After another seven minutes the deer was still just eating. It soon began to look frantically through the woods. It acted like it was in great danger.

The deer was just getting ready to run when another deer appeared over the hill. The deer that walked over the hill walked right through a clearing that I could probably shoot through. Before I could get my gun moved to the deer it was in the same brush as the first deer. The doe that had just came into my view was much bigger than the doe that was already eating. The bigger doe continued to gaze back at the opening it had trotted across. When deer continue to look back it is a sign that more deer are following it.

I thought that if I was going to shoot at the distance the deer were at, then I would need to rest my gun for stability. I quickly looked for something to rest my gun on, but far off saw what looked like a dot moving across the opening that the first deer ran across. I raised my rifle, but the deer was flagging across the field. I followed the deer with my rifle on every hop it took.

The deer did not stop flagging until it reached the opposite side if the opening as it came from. I steadied my gun and moved the rifle in a smooth, horizontal sweep, following the deer through the woods. I put my cross hairs right on the front shoulder. At the distance I was at, the deer would almost take a full step before the bullet could reach it. I did not want to rush the shot, so I followed the deer with my cross hairs on it for a few seconds.

I was putting all my focus on the exact spot my bullet would go. I kept the rifle moving so it was always pointing at the exact spot I needed to shoot. During the time that I was following the deer, it had reached the wood line and turned and went in. I had not noticed this, but right as I was ready to shoot, a tree appeared in front of the deer. The deer stopped, but its heart was covered by the tree.

The only part of the deer that I could see was its neck. The neck is a good spot to shoot a deer, so I moved my cross hairs right in the middle of the neck. I slowly began to squeeze the trigger. I was slowly squeezing, waiting for the point that the gun would shoot. I did not want my gun to move at all, not even part of a degree. Time was moving so slow. I was waiting for the shot. Saying to myself, “Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze the trigger…” I took a deep breath to stable myself, but when the firing pin finally hit the bullet, the only noise was, “Click!” The gun did not fire.
I loaded the next round into the gun as fast as I could and pulled the gun up again and focused the cross hairs right in the middle of the deer’s neck. I again took another deep breath and began to squeeze the trigger slowly. I even squeezed the trigger slower. I could feel the tension building on the trigger. The gun was so close to firing. I slowly let my breathe out, and with the last bit of air leaving my lungs I finished squeezing the trigger. The cross hairs were still in the exact spot I had place them, and “BANG!” there it was, the shot, the moment of truth. The moment you could tell if you held your rifle perfectly still, the moment you knew if you were aimed at the right spot, the moment you knew if your gun was sighted in right, and the moment you knew weather you got your deer or not. Right as the shot echoed through the woods, the doe dropped in its tracks and lay there silently. There was no squirm, no kick, nothing. The doe just laid there like it had laid down to sleep. I knew that I had done everything right. My hunt was successful. I had meet in the freezer.
This short moment of thrill led to a lot of work. I had a 300-yard walk to the deer. I began trampling through the deep snow and downed trees the second after I shot. The crisp winter air was cold to my lungs. I took deep breaths and large steps to try to save my energy. The downed trees that were covered in snow made it very hard to walk across. When I was about half-way across the opening, I began to fall. I stumbled into a dip in the ground, and my foot got caught in a hole. As I tried to regain my balance, my foot would not move. I spun around as fast as I could, so I would not hyperextend my knee. I swung around but felt a sudden tug on the back of my ankle. I collided with the ground, and my gun took flight and land five feet away in the snow bank. As I laid on the frozen ground, I prayed that my ankle was fine. It felt like a person loaded my ankle with needles and I was trying to turn it. After a moment rest, I began to rise, but when I put my weight on the injured ankle I collapsed again. It did not feel like I broke to bone, but like I had dislocated it. I was in the middle of a frozen slashing littered with obstacles and could not walk. As I sat taking off my boot to rub my ankle, I glanced toward my deer and saw another hunter watching me. This seemed very strange, but I returned to removing my boot and notice that my ankle was not actually dislocated, but that a large piece of wood had gotten jammed into my boot during the fall. I had no idea of how this happened, but it had left my whole ankle bruised. After removing the chunk of wood, I could walk, but my ankle was still very tender and easily irritated.

I began to limp toward the deer, to my surprise the fellow hunter was dragging my deer toward me. I limped and stumble toward him, but he said, “I will drag it down this hill for you, you can wait there.” I accepted the hunters offer and waited, I did not want to walk any further than necessary.
The other hunter pulled the deer right to me and offered, “If you gut it now, I can help you load the deer into your truck. I was just walking the edge of the slashing and noticed that you were on the ground. It looked like you were in pain so when I came upon your deer, I decided to drag it to you.” I was very glad for his help and offered, “If you help me, I can bring you back to your vehicle and save you some walking. Also, if you want the heart, it can be yours.” The gentleman was delighted with the deal and helped me with the drag out. This kind-hunter made my work much easier and saved me from a very painful drag. This simple act of kindness was very appreciated and made me very grateful.