It was the first time Peter had ever been hunting. He was terrified, what would he do if a deer did come into the field he was hunting, what if he missed, what if he falls out of his treestand. Peter, His dad Frank, and his Uncle Joe were sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee in the morning at about 3:30 in the morning and were planning to start to drive to the woods at about 5:00. They just sat there and talked, about the weather, wind direction, what their overall plan was. Uncle Joe was planning on going to his stand that was on the logging road, he hadn’t hunted it in years, and he hoped that the deer had began to travel on it again, because they knew that there wasn’t a threat on it anymore. His Dad was planning to go to the same spot he hunts every year, he is about 1,000 yards in the woods in the biggest pine tree in the woods. it is about 50 ft tall, and he sits about 20 feet up in the air, he gets at least two deer sitting up in the stand every year. And Peter was planning on sitting in the stand that was about 200 yards East of Frank, it had a trail that was constantly used by the deer, and right in front of the stand about 50 yards away, there was a scrape on the ground, it comes from when a buck rubs his horns on something to try to get the felt off, and yesterday he also checked the trail cams they had on two trees by the stand, and for the past 5 days there had been a 12 point buck, and there was an extremely high chance that he would get a shot at this deer in the next two days they would be hunting.

They finished their coffee, and started getting ready, Peter grabbed his boots, camo pants, and orange jacket, he made sure he had his glove, face mask, and his fanny pack were in the van. The fanny pack had a knife, drag rope, saw, and just about everything he could ever need. Once they all made sure they had all of their stuff in the van, they got in and were off. It was about a half-an-hour ride to the hunting spot, so Peter closed his eyes for a little while. When they got to the spot Frank lightly tapped Peter and woke him up. They got out of the van and put all of their gear on, loaded the guns, and locked the van. They quietly closed the doors and began walking, Frank went about 200 yards down a road from the van and turned into the woods, but then Peter kept walking about 200 yards on the road further. He turned into the woods and went off road, he shined his flashlight on the ground to make sure that there was nothing he would trip on and tried to be as quiet as possible. He kept walking straight on a trail that he knew went right past the stand. After about 800 yards he began to look for the stand because they didn’t know the exact distance the stand was in. He began to shine his light in the trees to try to find the right one, or at least a tree with a trail camera on it. He kept walking, when he looked up and saw his stand, he tied the gun onto a rope they had by the stand, and he climbed up into the stand. He pulled to gun up and untied it off the rope, he dropped the rope back down and he was ready.

The sun rose up over the treetops, and just as it hit Peter's face he suddenly became very drowsy, like he hadn't slept for days. He began to nod off, when suddenly he heard a branch crack out in the woods, it was nearby. He gripped his gun and pushed the stock into his shoulder, he scanned the woods to try to see something out of the ordinary, but he didn’t find anything. He lowered his gun and put it on his lap, he relaxed again looking through the woods hoping to hear another noise, and then have something come into the area in front of him so he could get a shot. But he most of all hoped that the 12 pointer they saw on the trail cam would walk into the opening so he could get a chance at that monster. but the day went on and nothing came out, he sat there and sat there and still saw nothing. That is until he started to get up and out of the tree stand, as he stood up he looked out and into the field one last time and saw an absolute monster. It wasn't the 12 pointer he had hoped for but much bigger, he couldn't even count the number of points his rack had, but he was massive. Peter sat in his stand in awe, he almost forgot to grab his gun. He just sat there and watched as this monster came out of the woods and stood right in the middle of the field and looked around, Peter had never seen anything like it before in his whole life, and he wouldn't have asked to see it in any different way.

He looked at this beast as it entered and he raised his gun trying to line up his sights on the deer but he was shaking so much, his heart was racing. He tried to calm down taking deep breaths trying to steady his aim. The deer stopped in the middle of the field and began to rub its horns on the ground. Giving Peter the perfect shot, he put the pin of the scope right behind the deer's front leg, just as Frank had taught him. He turned off the safety and put his finger on the trigger. He pulled the trigger and heard a loud BOOM!!! The deer jumped up into the air and began to run, Peter quickly loaded another bullet and got the deer in his sights again. He pulled the trigger and shot another round, the deer slowed but kept going. Peter didn't have enough time to get another shot off at the deer again. It disappeared into the thick woods again.

After about 15 minutes of Peter trying to catch his breath and calm down he got up and climbed down and out of his stand. He walked over to the area he had shot the deer and shined his flashlight on the ground to find some blood. He did there was a big splatter all over the grass, he followed the trail that led him in the direction that the deer had limped away in. He walked still shining his light on the bloodtrail that was left. The blood led him to an opening in a field that had about 3 foot tall grass, he looked into the field and saw a little trail of grass lying down in the field and in the center there was a circle of grass that was laying down. He walked forward following the trail and found the beast just lying there. He dropped wont to his knees and gave the dead deer a big hug, and said thank you. he was so glad that he had had a chance at this deer and he executed it perfectly.

He quickly began to gut the deer to make it easier to get out of the woods and to help to preserve the meat, he finished and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. He called his dad, and asked him to come out and into the woods to come and help him get the deer out. He just asked Frank to meet him by the stand he had been sitting in and Peter would drag the deer there so they could get it onto the A.T.V so they could get the deer out easier. The met up and his father congratulated him on this monster he had shot. This story would be one that Peter would never forget, one that changed his life, one that changed how he viewed the woods and nature in general, and one that he would be able to tell his kids when he hopefully get to teach them the way his father had taught him.