Mid evening on that October night. It was a chilly night, low forties maybe, and a little breezy. My dad and I set off for my grandfather’s property in Marshall at three in the afternoon. We were getting ready to hunt. My grandpa’s property is around 135 acres of land around his house. This is mostly woods, but has a field at the closest portion of the land to his house. Fingers of the woods stick out that are perfect for hiding deer stands, as deer don’t have good vision at all, the stands blend right in to the leaves and trees.
My stand is set off to the northeast of his home, facing west across the field. Deer trails come up on either side and out of a finger of the woods forty yards in front of the stand. This is where my horrible mistake happens. I was very excited to go on this hunt, as it was my first bow hunt. My dad and I arrive at my grandpa’s and drive past his house down a gravel road to an open grass pasture that my brother and I have an old swing attached to a tree. We unloaded our hunting clothes from the truck and got everything we wanted sorted out.
Since it wasn’t too cold out, I didn’t wear any of our huge coats. We both dressed in about layers, got our camo pants and our boots on, grabbed our bows and arrows, and set off for our stands. Walking across the field, I started to get excited. I was becoming one with nature. It had rained the day before so my boots were sloshing around in the mud. I was a little bit worried that, some how, every animal in the forest would hear the human making all this noise; it was a crazy thought, I know.
I finish walking the 250 yards to my stand and notice that my feet are about three pounds heavier than they were before. Ten minutes later, after finally scraping all the mud off my boots, are start to climb up the ladder into the stand. With the bow slung over my shoulder, I started up the ladder. The stand is a standard ten foot ladder stand, with a seat about one and a half feet wide, and the most uncomfortable cushion that I have ever had the displeasure of sitting on. It is anchored to a tree in a group of three or four.
Hooks to put my bow on stick out of a tree to my right. About two hours into my hunt I was starting to worry that I’m not going to see anything. I was restless. Time started to lengthen, one minute felt like five, thirty minutes felt like an hour. I thought I saw something move across the field and I started to pay more attention. Then, what felt like a blessing at the time, the biggest buck I have ever seen walks out of the finger in front of me. He was a ten pointer, but was built like he had forty. He must have weighed 240 pounds easily.
He got into a position in front of me where I couldn’t see him unless I leaned left or right, because of a tree right in my view of the spot he was standing at. This buck stood there for about three or four minutes, picking at the soy beans and stalks left in the field from harvest. Then he started to move. He walked away at first then, maybe through me mentally commanding him to come back towards me, he came back, in clear view now. Everything started flashing before my eyes, everything I learned from my dad about bow hunting, but then I realized, my bow wasn’t ven in my hands, it was still hanging on the hook next to me.
I raise my bow up, hook my release into the drawback loop, and then I realized the most fatal-feeling mistake yet, there was no arrow knocked in my bow. I scrambled to get an arrow out of my quiver attached to the bow, and I try to click it in as quietly as I can. It wasn’t quiet at all. The buck looked up, then looked at me, and bolted. I was defeated. Thoughts were racing through my head, mostly, “No, no, no, no, no, no,” and, “Oh my gosh I’m the worst hunter alive.
How can I even be here right now? ” | took a look up and got one final glance of him bolting off into the night. All 240 pounds of ten point glory. All 240 pounds of glorious tasting meat. All ten points of antlers to put on my wall. All gone to never return. This was one of the most disappointing moments of my life. I had never felt beaten like this. The animal got the best of me, the sophisticated human that can’t remember to knock an arrow when he gets in his stand.