In a Matter of Minutes

By Jean Moreno

“This is prime time,” my husband bellowed at me through the walkie-talkie early that morning. “Why are you moving around? You’re gonna scare off all the deer with all that motion! Not to mention racket. Why can’t a woman just sit still for a few hours? I swear, if you ruin this hunt for me….”

He never finished his threat. I could hardly wait for him to stop yelling so I could tell him that I had just shot a big, six-point buck, in addition to a doe.

“I’m coming right over,” he replied, sounding a bit chastened.

Recalling that amazing morning is fun every time, but I suppose I should start at the beginning.

It was only my second year as a deer hunter. My husband and I were hunting on our own twenty three-and-a-half acres. Prior to opening day, as most hunters do, we had scouted around for the best possible sites to place our blinds. I chose a spot we now call The Point. The location is on a slight rise with a giant tree directly behind me and a large field of pine trees spread out before me. However, my husband had a problem with the location because the main deer run is just five yards west of my chosen spot. He kept telling me he didn’t think I should choose a spot so close to the deer run because he was afraid that the deer would either see or hear me being that close to their major thruway. I’m certain he thought that I would ruin the hunt that morning.

But the main reason I chose The Point was because I am short and I needed to be able to see over all the tall grass.

On that special morning, which I did not yet know would be special, we walked out to our spots early, as usual. We had walkie-talkies and agreed to radio each other at nine a.m. or if one of us took a shot.

It was a perfect day to hunt. A fresh blanket of snow covered the ground. It was neither too cold nor too warm. The morning was quiet and peaceful except for nature’s animals. The weak, autumn morning sun sat on the Eastern horizon, peeking through clouds.

My favorite time of day was beginning to unfold. The rabbits were still out hopping around and the birds were starting to wake up for the day. I could hear wings flutter and the song birds calling out.

Suddenly, my attention was alerted by the sound of movement to my left. Having emerged seemingly out of nowhere, a giant doe stood staring at me. My heart started pounding. I slowly raised my 20-gauge shotgun, concentrating on moving slowly, and I mentally talked myself through the steps I needed to take next. “Release the safety. Aim at the spot behind the shoulder. Take a deep breath. Steady! Squeeze the trigger.” Pow! I dropped the doe with one shot. Immediately, I ejected the shell just in case I needed to shoot again.

That’s when I saw the six-point buck. He was standing at attention in a perfect position for me to take a shot. Darn it, I thought, as I realized that I hadn’t ejected the shell all the way out of my gun. I couldn’t believe I had done something so stupid. I decided I wasn’t going to let this mistake prevent me from at least trying to take advantage of this rare opportunity. I was going to eject the shell and take a shot at that buck before it ran off, but I would have to accomplish it in one quick, smooth motion. And there I was again talking to myself: “Eject the shell. Keep your eye on the buck. Don’t look at the horns. Aim. Shoot.”

I took the shot and the buck took off so fast I was sure that I had missed it. Well, it was fun even if I did miss, I thought. My adrenalin was pumping so hard that I forgot about calling my husband. I only remembered the pre-arranged time of 9 a.m. It was about 8 o’clock, so I settled down to wait. After about 45 minutes, I decided to go see if I had hit that buck. I found some blood, so I started to trail it. I found more blood and then a huge amount of blood and there was the buck, lying on the ground. I was thrilled.

By this time I had my walkie-talkie on and my husband could see me from his blind. He called me and wanted to know why I was moving around. That’s when I told him why I was going to go back to the house for a little while. He was furious because he thought I was leaving because I was cold. Heck, he hadn’t even heard my shots.

I know this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. But it happened to me and it happened in my own back yard. I took two shots and killed two deer, all in a matter of minutes. That’s a pretty short time for a woman to rustle up a winter’s worth of meals.