A little Background: I took my wife to get her hunters safety card in September because she wanted to know how to handle a firearm safely and know more about hunting. She passed with flying colors and was so proud. So I took her with me the Saturday of early Muzzeloader season on the Eastern shore for her first whole day hunting experience (she went an afternoon in KY before but we saw nothing). We get up to the two man treestand Saturday in the dark overlooking a Milo field and she neglected to tell me that she's afraid of heights. So up in the treestand she did go but was scared to death the whole time.
I convinced her it would get better when it got light. Sure enough she gets more relaxed when the sun comes up. Around 7:18 she whispers "A buck A buck" I dont see it and she says "too your right a buck". I see it pull up my Muzzeloader see its a decent 8 point and BAM! I watch it run and crash into the hedgerow we are in and she is SO EXCITED!
She helps me track it from the point of the shot since we know its already down and I show her how to follow a blood trail. Then the FUN part begins after we take some pictures. She watches and is a bit grossed out but she did watch. Then she helped me drag it to the car and load it. up.
Point to add: I dont post pictures of myself or my loved ones on the internet. But I am so proud of her and feel so lucky that I will do it for this and she consented.
Milo field we were overlooking
To continue the story we got the buck home and she decides she wants a hunting license now too. So we go get her one after we get the buck hung up and I skin it. We go back to the same stand and at about 6:25 she takes the muzzleloader and swings to her left and BAM! I dont know what she shot at but she's shaking so bad and it happened real quick. She goes "Big buck in the hedgerow....big big buck!" I laugh and ask if she got it. She doesnt know because it was facing her and she remembered from class where to shoot so she said she shot it in the chest. I ask her "how big?", "at least double what your's was" she said. I roll my eyes but we get down. I find out the buck was standing over the gut pile of the buck I shot that morning.
It got too dark to continue but we did find blood so we took over the next day. Sunday we searched through another milo field and eventually recovered the deer (bear in mind my wife HATES bugs and they were out in full force but she would not stop looking....so proud). It is a very tall 9 point about the width of my buck from that morning. We didnt get any pictures because we forgot the camera and plan to get some of the antlers later. We had to take it to a deer processor as I cant handle two deer in the heat we have had here in MD as I was barely able to get the first deer all done yesterday.
Well I hope you enjoyed our hunting story and to say I am proud and lucky is an understatement. My wife has never shot at an animal in HER LIFE or seen one killed. For her to go from an observer to a hunter was an amazing thing to watch. When we were in the treestand she started saying "I know why you love it so much...your so in tune with nature, you hear everything, smell everything and you feel so free".....She gets it. And I am the better man for it.
Edited to Add: I field dressed both Deer with a Scott Gossman hunter in D2. Both deer were shot using my Thompson TC Omega.
But I'll post a pic of my Little brother's(Turkey George) Doe from Sat. -9-18-10 :thumbup:
They told us at work we were going to 6 days a week until Thanksgiving & maybe up till Christmas 
So...no more deer hunting for me this season :thumbdn:
