Female Hunter #5

# 5 Traci Stein - Lansing

Buck Stats & important features * My buck weghed 120 pounds field dressed and was a 3 point. He should win the longest single tine award. On the left he had 2 points but on the right he had a single 9" tine (he was a 4-point, he just forgot to grow his other branch!! :) )

Where did you take this buck? Battle Creek MI, Calhoun County

This buck, my very first deer, came to me on my third time out ever hunting. I decided mid-day on Saturday Nov. 21 that I'd go out for a couple hours before dark that eafternoon just to get out of my husband's hair (he's a medical student at MSU and really needed to write a paper!). So I went out and decided to try a new tree. My Dad helped me find a good spot. He's been hunting since he was a kid, so he knows a good spot when he sees one! So I got up in my tree around 3:30pm and starting watching. Squirrels were everywhere and were continually tricking me into thinking a deer was headed my way. At about 4:10 I suddenly heard a crashing sound coming my way from behind one of the three trees I was standing in the middle of about 4.5 feet off the ground. So I got my gun up and popped the safety. Of course in my excitement I used one finger to pop it and it made a loud clicking sound. The crashing sound stopped and I thought for sure I had made too much noise. Instead, he kept on coming. Next I saw him through my scope, he was maybe 20 yards from my tree. He was close enough that he took up the majority of my scope, so I found his shoulder, whistled at him so he'd stop and look, and then....I really don't remember pulling the trigger or feeling the gun kick. All I remember is watching his tail drop and see him take off down the hill. I knew I hit him when I saw his tail drop like that. I watched him run to the bottom of the hill, near a swamp, and then he vanished. Next thing I did was call my Dad, who was also hunting. He told me to look for hair and see if I hit him and he'd head my way. In all my excitement I had a bit of trouble determining where exactly he was when he stopped and I shot. I ended up finding blood before hair. Then I knew for sure I hit him! Once my Dad found me we followed his blood trail and found him about 200 yards away, in nearly the exact spot he 'vanished'! I got him with a near-perfect shot through the shoulder. I hit him in his left atrium, my husband says if I'd hit his ventricle he wouldn't have run so far. I'll have to work on that for next time (yeah right! ;) ), because dragging him up that big hill was an awful lot of work! All in all I am very proud of my first deer, even if he isn't a monster. I'll get to remember this story all winter as we enjoy the meat. Thanks God!