Day 1:
My first morning in North Carolina was spent in the tree hunting with my brother Daniel. I had just flown in from Washington state the night before and the 704 crew had everything ready to go when I got there. We got in the tree just before the sun came up and had high hopes for the day. The stand I was sitting in overlooked part of a field and an old creek bed. Daniel was to my left, facing the woods. We felt pretty good about the day but it started off slow with no sign of deer. After sitting for several hours, we decided it was a good time to get down and ready ourselves for the evening hunt. On the way out, Daniel grabbed the trail cam card and we headed back to the house.
Although the card didn’t show a bunch of daytime sign we did have a few pictures of some nice deer coming in and out of the area. So with high hopes for the evening hunt and the chase just kicking off we headed back out to the stand.
We decided to sit in the another stand in the evening. Daniel was in a climber and I was in the stand he setup earlier in the season a few trees away. As the night went on and the sun started to settle in on the horizon we spotted a deer down in the bottom of the field. I looked at Daniel and signed “too small” as we watched what we thought was a doe walk up the hill toward us. As she came closer and closer I watched the edge of the field behind him waiting for a buck or big doe to pop out.
Soon the deer was under us and nothing had popped out behind her. In a split decision I decided the deer wasnt as small as i had thought and to shoot; after all, meat is meat and I only had 3 days to hunt. Pulling the trigger I watch the deer drop in its tracks as my brother about threw the camera out into the field. I guess I should have told him I was gonna shoot because as the gun went off he about jumped out of the stand! Either way, first deer of the year was in the books!
David Gunderman
To be continued…
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