After a long day of helpless deer hunting I sat my gun down slowly shrugging away, without losing hope that it wouldn’t be long before that gold trigger was pulled with nothing but the intentions to kill.
We were up and down hills, over logs, and threw trees. Hours of trampling through the forest to not see a single deer. It was bringing our spirits down and becoming very frustrating.
After countless minutes of contemplating what to do, an idea came to my uncle. “How about we take a trip down to the river and see if we can’t kick the fish’s ass, because the deer sure are kicking ours,” he suggested slightly giggling in a sarcastic tone. My aunt and I chuckled, agreeing to hit the road to the river.
My aunt Carla and I ended up catching a ton of fish! Kevin, my uncle had to cut us off because he was tired of cleaning crappie after crappie. “Glad you guys are down there enjoying yourself while I’m up here slaving away!” he yelled down to us while throwing a fish carcass down to the water intending to splash us. We hinted that this meant he was ready to go. Each of us took one last cast and then packed up and headed out.
As we were heading back from fishing another brilliant idea struck upon my uncle. I had mentioned I was desperate to kill an animal, so he suggested we try and kill a grouse on the way back to camp. The plan was to drive down the bumpy old 39 road that had hundreds of trails forking off of it. We would pick one and hike to the end looking for grouse.
The plan followed through nicely. I picked the trail to hike down that looked like it had the most purple bushes that grouse live in. I grabbed my shotgun and began to walk off.
“You’re not going to grab your rifle?” Kevin questioned me while standing at the truck holding the door open.
“Umm, I wasn’t going too,” I replied thoroughly confused.
“You do know we are still deer hunting, right?”
I ran back to the truck feeling a little stupid and grabbed my riffle. We headed off down the wide trail. I had the left, Carla had the right, and Kevin had the middle to look for grouse. We were about five minutes in and all we had seen was cattle.
As we were approaching the end of the trail, it split. The left side opened up into a big orchard and the right side opened up into a bright green meadow. Both full of beautiful sights of nature, but no grouse and no deer.
When all hope had been lost, the unexpected happened.
“Bear! Bear!” Kevin whispered as quietly as he could with how excited he was.
“W-w-where?” I asked stuttering, not sure I heard him right.
I looked up in the distance toward the orchard and saw the bear. I couldn’t believe my eyes! His fur moved up and down every step he took. He was oblivious to the fact we were near at the moment.
Kevin and I rushed over to a stump from a fallen down tree located on the side of the trail as quietly as possible. I needed to use it as a rest, the rifle felt like a thousand pounds in the heat of the moment and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take a steady shot free-hand. As we were creeping up to the stump my body changed.
My heart was pounding faster than it ever had before. Adrenaline was rushing through my body and had completely taken over. All of my emotions were mixed. I was happy and excited, but could still feel the nervousness inside of me.
“Make sure it’s a bear, not a cow before shoot,” Carla managed to say quickly before I took my shot. Those ten words felt like my worst nightmare and that moment. My stress level went up a whole notch higher.
The bear was in the middle of my crosshairs starting to walk away. It was now or never. I took my deep breath in, an exhaled half out holding steady then squeezed. “Bang!”
The bear ran two short steps after the shot and then dropped at the base of the hill leading to the orchard. I hit him directly in the back completely busting it. He laid there with less than an inch of his life remaining.
Kevin and I slowly approached the bear knowing he was still alive, but not able to go anywhere. It was time to finish him off. My body was shaken and my mind was freaking out. I couldn’t quite process the fact I was walking up to an alive bear.
I calmed myself down one deep breathe at a time. Raised my rifle to my shoulder and put him out of his misery shooting him directly in the neck. Blood poured out of the bear dripping from his fur.
“Shh, shh,” my aunt whispered stopping on a dime. “I heard movement back toward the field,” she pointed in the direction of the noise.
We all stopped and watched for a moment. What could it be? When I saw the deer with little horns sticking up, standing about 100 yards away, I was in shock. This wasn't happening. I was not standing by a dead bear about to kill a deer.
While my heart was beating 100 miles per hour I walked over to get a rest. The closest thing to us was a big grey boulder. I got down in a crouched position and set myself up to take a shot but I knew I wasn't ready. My hands were shaking to bad and my breathing was out of control.
Several deep breaths later I told myself I was ready. I squeezed the trigger and froze. The deer dropped. The look on my face was priceless. My jaw dropped and my eyes looked like bug eyes!
I had to do a reality. Was this really happening? I felt like the luckiest girl alive. There was so much adrenaline running through my body, it felt as if I was having a heart attack.
When everything was over and settled I still didn't believe that I had killed a bear and a deer within three minutes of each other. I knew it would hit me sooner or later. All night long I think it would have been impossible to wipe the smile off my face. This was an experience of a lifetime.
The memories made on this day will never be forgotten. Still to this day just talking about it brings a smile to my face.
