The High Five

            It was a cold December morning. Just a few days before Christmas. I remember the 4 wheeler wouldn’t start so I took the long walk to my favorite stand on the property. Whenever you have a long walk you know you’re going to kill a deer if the drag is going to be difficult.

            This 15 foot ladder stand overlooks a big opening at the convergence of three logging roads. You walk in on the long road then the stand sits slightly down a road to your left. I climbed up in the dark and hung my muzzleloader on the hook on the tree and set my shotgun across my lap.

            While the opening in front is large and there are roads on all sides you are in large hardwoods so you cannot really see or shoot extremely far. So I assumed the shotgun would give me all of the shooting distance I would need for any deer I would be able to see.

            I sat and watched the sun come up and heard ducks whistle right over my head. I listened for rustling in the brush hoping to hear something that wasn’t a squirrel.

            The hours passed and I had very little action but never lost hope. I was looking at my watch and thinking about what time I would need to climb down from the stand.

            Then around 9:30 I was yawning thinking about the fact that I had told my dad I would climb down and meet him around 10:00. But I heard something moving in the leaves to my left. I looked around and couldn’t see any animals I thought not too much of it. There is a lot of noises made in the woods that can’t always be found.

            But after a while I looked to my left where the rustling of the leaves was coming from and directly next to me at about 40 yards was an 8 point buck walking through the woods. He had snuck up on me.

            I slightly turned while still seated in the stand and attempted to raise my shotgun to my shoulder. The buck stopped and looked directly at me. My gun was not yet to my shoulder and I thought to myself “don’t move, don’t move”. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity he put his head down again. I got the gun the rest of the way to my shoulder and my eyes looked down the barrel at the bead.  

            I trained the gun on the deer’s vitals right behind his front leg. I took a deep breath while talking myself through it and slowly squeezed the trigger.

            Boom! The gun went off and I looked and the buck was down. A great feeling to not have to search for blood and trek to find a deer.

            My dad had heard the shot so just a few minutes later my phone rang. I picked up and said I got him. I told him I would start dragging him out but it was going to be tough and I could use some help. He told me he would start making his way to me shortly.

            I grabbed my two guns and climbed down from the stand. I walked over and inspected the deer. A beautiful 8 pointer. Not huge but enough to excite me quite a bit and make me feel like the king of the world for a day.

            With a gun on each shoulder I grabbed the deer by the antlers and started the long slow drag. It was probably just over a mile which doesn’t sound that difficult until you are dragging dead weight the entire way.

            Luckily most of the drag was downhill. I would drag the deer 50 to 100 yards at a time and stop and catch my breath. Finally after what seemed like a ten mile drag my dad finally made his way to me.

            He inspected the deer and with a big smile gave me a high five and said that a boy. And for some reason that moment brought me back to 20 years earlier when in the next block of woods over from where I was dragging that buck I had killed my first doe when I was 13 years old.

            I have been hunting and fishing with my dad forever. I have specific memories of sitting in the deer stand with him at 7 years old. Not carrying a gun and never seeing a deer because I’m sure I was moving too much.

            There’s something about that moment when my dad high fives me that makes me feel better than anything else. There’s an accomplished feeling of killing a deer which is like no other. You do walk around the rest of the day feeling like you are powerful. But nothing makes you feel better than a simple moment when you can feel your father being proud of you for applying all the things he taught you in accomplishing a goal.