Oh! That's How!

So there I was...

looking down the scope of my .243, ready to take the kill shot on a big, mean-looking doe (it helps me to picture them with fangs) when all of a sudden...

Hold on. Let me back up to the beginning of the story.

Sunday after our church potluck (I don't do early morning hunts if I can help it and I likes me a good potluck!) we changed into our camo-gear mainly for Caleb and Owen's sake and we set off in Big Red. (side note - Caleb has now nicknamed our car Small, Dark Blue)

Within minutes my two scouts who were supposed to be spotting deer looked like this:

Before too long we reached our destination and they quickly woke up. We sat back and let Mark set up the blind and then we climbed in ready to sit about 5 minutes until a doe came walking towards us and presented me with just the right shot. Oh - that's not how hunting works? Darn it!

The boys were so excited and Owen kept saying "I can't believe we're really going hunting!" Well, the first part of our hunt was pretty boring. We sat behind that blind for close to an hour and didn't see much besides a herd of cows. Caleb had assembled a pile of seeds that would feed an ant colony for close to 10 years and Owen helped him when he wasn't picking stickers and thorns out of his pants.

I was pretty bored by this point and I asked Mark how much longer we had to sit there. "I could stay here until dark but it's your hunt babe so we can do what you want."

Well, dark was definitely too far away for me too sit there we we packed up the blind and decided to do some "spot and stalks". When we were driving to our location we had noticed some deer bedded down a little ways from us. We drove the truck past them and sure enough, they were still there.

We parked the truck a couple of hundred yards down the road and we slowly walked up to where we had saw them. The boys were behind me and I think they managed to step on every crackly leaf that has fallen so far this year. When I looked behind to tell them to be quieter, I saw that they were hunched over, tiptoeing and trying so hard to be quiet already. I just kept walking. If we saw the deer, great. If not, that was ok too.

It was actually another group of deer that we hadn't seen that spooked and took off running. They ended up "bumping" my little group of deer so we decided to go try some others.

We then proceeded to look high and look low. We looked around and under and pretty much all over. We stopped a couple different times and walked around - our little family train marching all over the countryside. I was the engine, followed by my little cars, Caleb and Owen and Mark was the caboose.

Finally, when we had just decided to go ahead and pack it in, we saw it.About 60 yards away from us was a big, fat lazy doe who just kept eating and didn't even really look at us. Mark and the boys were behind me as I lined up my sights. I took my time and made sure that I had everything just right. Mark was speaking to me in my head - "Take a breath and then let it out. Slowly pull the trigger.You should be surprised when it goes off. Don't flinch." Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

I went ahead and shot.

My bullet hit the doe right in the lungs and she reared up and then fell. I had reloaded in case I needed to shoot again but Eagle Eye (that's me!) had struck again and I didn't need a second shot.

When Mark determined that it was ok for us to go close, Owen came running up to me and he yelled "That was Totally Awesome!!!" He was so siked. Caleb just kept grinning and he made sure to tell me that he was proud of me. We (Mark) loaded it up in Big Red and took it back to his parent's house in order to skin and gut it.

First we took some pictures:

Then we (Mark) got ready to do the dirty part. I told the boys they didn't have to watch if they didn't want to. They just looked at me and then shoved me out of the way so they could get closer to the blood and guts.

WARNING - GRAPHIC GUTS UP AHEAD!!

Caleb was very impressed with the size of the stomach and they both were impressed by the heart and the lungs. Mark showed them the lung that was intact and then they one that I had shot. Caleb again turned to me and said "I am so proud of you Mom!"

I'm glad I earned your approval son. It only took me killing something to do so.

While they were holding the doe's legs, I had to wonder - If I had given birth to two little girls, would they be doing the same thing?

 

I had to admit that the answer would probably be yes. Their destiny would be the same as mine. We were going to be a family of hunters whether I liked it or not. In choosing to love Mark, I also made the choice of supporting him to the best of my abilities in the things that he loves. Hunting, Fishing, Hiking. In return, I have a happy husband who will sit and read a book in order to make me happy and he will even pretend to enjoy one every now and then.