8 Points and Wide Eyes

My cousin Nicholas is one of the few who come into hunting later in life. A few years ago we began hanging out more than we used to, and he has become one of my very best friends. We would go hunting during Thanksgiving breaks and at Christmas time on our family property, but never really had any luck harvesting a deer. Just enjoyed being outside and hanging out.

Fast forward a few years. It is 2019 deer season in South Carolina. Nick has yet to harvest a deer. Since we were already heading to South Carolina, going to Kiawah Island for my Bachelor’s party, we decided that it would not hurt to leave a day early and pack our gear. So we headed down to Moncks Corner to hunt with my father-in-law to-be. We got in around 11p.m. and slept until 4:30 a.m.

Robbie, my father-in-law, was greeted in his own house, by two guys in their boxers, sleeping on his couches. We quickly offered our thank-you gift of Jack Daniels for his allowing us to hunt. We dressed and headed to Huddle House, which is a lot like Waffle House. With two workers, a few other early birds, and some drunks from the night before, we went over the do’s and don'ts of hunting the specific area we were about to hunt.

We went over how to select our stands depending on the wind’s direction. We then went over which bucks were okay to shoot and which were not, based on trail-cam photos Robbie had collected through the summer months.

On this property we are only to shoot 8-points and above. The buck needed to be a mature, older buck and “basket 8’s” don't count. So we paid our bill and went on out into the woods.

We dropped Nick, and then Robbie dropped me off. From the beginning, I knew it would be an interesting morning. I jumped a deer while walking to my stand, and he snorted and wheezed while running away from me. Now in the middle of the still morning, when all is calm and asleep, that deer might as well have been a toddler banging on drums or running through the woods with a trumpet. It alerted any other animals nearby that I was there.

Routinely, when I climb into my stand, I check via text to make sure my friends are safe and where they need to be. Robbie was good to go, and Nick did not respond. Nick had informed us at breakfast that he had left his phone at home. Not good.

As the world began to awaken you could hear ducks, boats on the river, and the other noises of a dewy world come alive. And right when I thought all was calm, I heard a gunshot. Robbie and I exchange texts. “You?” “No, not me.” We waited a few minutes, but knowing Nick didn’t have his phone and that this could possibly be his first harvest, we decided to come on down.

I waited at the gate for Robbie to pick me up. He arrived and already had Nick with him, which seemed a bit odd. Usually you gather up the folks who have not shot so that you have all hands on deck to help the person who has shot a deer. I came to the truck with great excitement asking Nick, “Did you get one?” and his face told me something was up. I said, “Oh no, did you miss? Was it a miss?” Nick replied, “It’s a buck...” but was not showing excitement at all. I got in the back of the truck, and we drove to the gate that allowed us into the area where Nick shot.

The ride is no longer than 40 seconds on the flat road, but it felt like an eternity. Robbie, looking in the rearview mirror at me wide eyed.... I could tell he was pissed. He hadn't seen the buck, but Nick must have told him it wasn't what we were supposed to shoot. It was awkward, to say the least, and I felt bad for two reasons. One, you never bring someone to a friend’s property and think they would shoot anything different than what was explained. Robbie’s property, his rules, right? I also felt so badly for Nick, as this was his first deer, and so far it was a terrible experience.

I got out of the truck, opened the gate, and instead of getting back in the truck I decided to walk. Thinking of every way I could turn this into a good situation for Nick.
I could see them pulling up to the brown figure ahead of me, so I began to jog. Robbie didn’t look upset, and as I got closer I could see it was actually a huge buck. In great celebration I began to jump up and down, congratulating Nick on a beautiful deer. Robbie said, “I would have shot that,” and no doubt, I would have, too. Nick was relieved and finally began to smile. The deer was not an 8, but an incredibly solid 6pt that had mass and wasn't in our “do not shoot”photo collection. You’d have to be crazy not to have taken that deer! And so commenced the photographing of the deer before we put him in the truck and drove him home to show the family.
It was then that Nick explained that the story didn't end there. He had gotten to the tree stand earlier that morning, knocked his permacell off the stand, gone down to get it, gone back up, then back down to use the bathroom, and when he got back up he could see just ever so slightly the head of the deer going up and down as he fed. This added bit of information was hilarious, as in deer hunting you are to stay still and sit, not march around the forest creating noise and moving. It was so special to have been with Nick when he harvested his first deer. He had put in so much time on our family farm in bow season, and we had hunted the season before a few times as well. After all, taking the life of a large animal is a big deal. I honestly have taken many knees only to pray and thank God or Mother Nature for the animals life.
It has been fun watching Nick go from not owning a rifle, to buying a rifle; from, learning to sight in his scope, and now, how to use it. The amount of hunting knowledge he has learned these past three or so years is awesome. He is now setting up trips to drag me along, and I can't wait until our next one. Also, it was the best way to start off my Bachelor’s party weekend

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Nicks First Buck

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Nick on Trail Camera poking his deer with a stick 😂

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