Hunting with your wife is taboo in certain circles within the hunting community. I can remember early in my hunting career when guys would scoff at the mere notion of me taking my wife hunting. “No way I would ruin my hunting by taking my wife along…” is a comment I have heard more than a few times over the years. Much like those who scoffed at me for making it a point to include my girlfriend/fiancé/wife in my hunting endeavors, I scoffed at the machismo and continued to be thankful for a woman that not only supported my hunting career, but one who wanted a hunting career of her own. For my wife, her hunting career began much like her most recent hunt: in a ground blind, in the cold, waiting for a deer to show up so she could drop the hammer on the muzzleloader. On a late December muzzleloader hunt in 2003, Tracie shot her first deer at 88 yards while it stood over a feed sack full of ear corn her grandfather had given me a few days prior. I will never forget the sense of excitement and fulfillment I had that afternoon and it’s the duplication of that feeling we’ve both been chasing for the past 14 seasons.
The following season, Tracie killed her first buck with a Barnett crossbow within 50 yards of where she shot her buck Saturday. That patch of woods has been good to us and over the years; several of her deer have come from the 11 acres we hope to call home in a little over a year. With the harvesting of her first buck, we had two “firsts” under our belts and the “streak” was underway. Like clockwork over the next 7 seasons, she was able to harvest a deer. In 2011, she added another first to her hunting resume: her first bow kill. She made an absolutely perfect shot on this BB at 27 yards during a flurry of action that included 11 different deer running around us. Also unbeknownst to us at the time of the shot, we even had a 140” 10 point behind a doe less than 40 yards away. That hunt happened on October 23 (10/23), a date which has always been my “lucky” day and it was arguably one of the best hunts of my life.
First Bow Kill
One reoccurring theme over the years was snow and cold. When the conditions were the worst, we seemed to do the best. In 2010, she killed a BB on a still hunt after noticing he was injured and making the decision to end his misery.
A couple of years later, she made a great shot on doe during a drive on my uncle’s farm. That day was one of the most beautiful days I have ever spent in the woods.
Even last year, bad conditions meant it was primetime for Tracie to knock down a deer.
The only season we were unable to kill a deer was 2012 when she was pregnant with Kaydence. We did make an attempt to kill one during gun season (9 months pregnant mind you) but the deer never gave us a decent shot. The 2012 season became the one *asterisk* on the streak. Some of the kills have been hard earned, others where standard “harvests” much like shooting a cow on the Back 40; but one thing never wavered and that was her shot placement. When the hammer dropped on the muzzleloader, I knew we had a deer to recover. Only once did we not recover a deer and that was all my fault. The shot was perfect, but with no blood trail, I made some poor decisions that allowed the coyotes to find the deer before I did. So heading in to this season, Tracie had killed 12 deer in 13 seasons with 12 perfectly placed shots. When we found out she was pregnant with #2 and that she’d once again be too pregnant to bow hunt, and “really” pregnant by gun season, I was starting to fear asterisk #2 might also accompany baby #2!
The one “first” that continually evaded us, is also the one that drives a lot of and that was killing a mature buck. We’ve our share of sightings, a couple close calls, but never have been able to cross that one off the list. The closest we came was during muzzleloader season in 2008. I had a deer I called Dozer on a timer. It was the first time, and really the last, I had a particular buck on such a tight pattern during hunting season. However he schooled us the night we went in to kill him, a lesson I’ll never forget. I was certain he was coming from the south, but he was coming from the north and that gave him the advantage. He came from the north, which put him at eye-level at 50 yards and in our scent stream. I was filming does at the corn when I heard him stop walking. By the time I turned around to see him, turned back around to get Tracie’s attention and helped her get in to position to shoot, he had started his slow retreat back in to the thicket from whence he came. Had I been hunting that night, he was dead (or at least shot at); but it was simply too much for her to execute given how cumbersome the CVA is for someone of her stature. Dozer is truly the “one that got away” from Tracie…
To be continued...
The following season, Tracie killed her first buck with a Barnett crossbow within 50 yards of where she shot her buck Saturday. That patch of woods has been good to us and over the years; several of her deer have come from the 11 acres we hope to call home in a little over a year. With the harvesting of her first buck, we had two “firsts” under our belts and the “streak” was underway. Like clockwork over the next 7 seasons, she was able to harvest a deer. In 2011, she added another first to her hunting resume: her first bow kill. She made an absolutely perfect shot on this BB at 27 yards during a flurry of action that included 11 different deer running around us. Also unbeknownst to us at the time of the shot, we even had a 140” 10 point behind a doe less than 40 yards away. That hunt happened on October 23 (10/23), a date which has always been my “lucky” day and it was arguably one of the best hunts of my life.
First Bow Kill
One reoccurring theme over the years was snow and cold. When the conditions were the worst, we seemed to do the best. In 2010, she killed a BB on a still hunt after noticing he was injured and making the decision to end his misery.
A couple of years later, she made a great shot on doe during a drive on my uncle’s farm. That day was one of the most beautiful days I have ever spent in the woods.
Even last year, bad conditions meant it was primetime for Tracie to knock down a deer.
The only season we were unable to kill a deer was 2012 when she was pregnant with Kaydence. We did make an attempt to kill one during gun season (9 months pregnant mind you) but the deer never gave us a decent shot. The 2012 season became the one *asterisk* on the streak. Some of the kills have been hard earned, others where standard “harvests” much like shooting a cow on the Back 40; but one thing never wavered and that was her shot placement. When the hammer dropped on the muzzleloader, I knew we had a deer to recover. Only once did we not recover a deer and that was all my fault. The shot was perfect, but with no blood trail, I made some poor decisions that allowed the coyotes to find the deer before I did. So heading in to this season, Tracie had killed 12 deer in 13 seasons with 12 perfectly placed shots. When we found out she was pregnant with #2 and that she’d once again be too pregnant to bow hunt, and “really” pregnant by gun season, I was starting to fear asterisk #2 might also accompany baby #2!
The one “first” that continually evaded us, is also the one that drives a lot of and that was killing a mature buck. We’ve our share of sightings, a couple close calls, but never have been able to cross that one off the list. The closest we came was during muzzleloader season in 2008. I had a deer I called Dozer on a timer. It was the first time, and really the last, I had a particular buck on such a tight pattern during hunting season. However he schooled us the night we went in to kill him, a lesson I’ll never forget. I was certain he was coming from the south, but he was coming from the north and that gave him the advantage. He came from the north, which put him at eye-level at 50 yards and in our scent stream. I was filming does at the corn when I heard him stop walking. By the time I turned around to see him, turned back around to get Tracie’s attention and helped her get in to position to shoot, he had started his slow retreat back in to the thicket from whence he came. Had I been hunting that night, he was dead (or at least shot at); but it was simply too much for her to execute given how cumbersome the CVA is for someone of her stature. Dozer is truly the “one that got away” from Tracie…
To be continued...
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