Friday, October 23rd

Tyler Bagstad with Ray Howell and his first whitetail

Today I was going hunting for my first whitetail deer and I was ready for the experience. My Grandpa and I started out driving to our new hunting spot and thinking about where we were going to set up. We had never hunted it before and could only hope that the area was as good as we had heard. When we got there we took a look around and we found a staging area that had a lot of fresh scrapes, but we decided not to set up there because the wind was not in our favor. So we set up in some tall grass where the wind was right and watched a feeding area to finish out the night.

Saturday, October 24th

We decided to get permission from the neighbor so we could come in on the back side of the staging area so we could keep the wind in our favor. We found a large tree that we could sit behind. The tree had lots of coverage where the deer couldn't see us. We were breaking branches for shooting lanes and using them to make a blind so we were even more invisible. As Grandpa was finishing up I got into the spot and got ready. We sat down and started calling with a grunt call and the rattling with horns. We were sitting there waiting, listening, and looking to see if we could get a buck to come in. Grandpa told me that the second time we rattled is usually when the deer will come to us. I sat listening and ready after the second set of rattling and that's when all of a sudden there was a big "SNAP" in the woods. I was so excited and nervous I almost jumped up. I don't think I have been that excited and nervous at the same time ever before. When I heard the snapping I knew it was a deer and I was ready for him. We sat there for about five minutes without hearing or seeing anything until I saw something out of the corner of my eye. There he was just to my left standing at the creek bottom looking in our direction. I was so excited I had trouble whispering that the buck was there. When I finally told my Grandpa, he started filming him with the video camera. He was going right where we wanted him to go. When he got to an opening I heard Grandpa whispering "Draw your bow." When I was drawing my bow the buck caught the movement he snorted, turned and ran about 20 yards back. Amazingly he stopped and turned around to take a better look at what I was. After a minute of looking he took one more step and was going to run away for good, but something made him come back in. When he was walking back in he was coming in fast and was not stopping so I pulled my bow back to full draw. My Grandpa made a doe call that stop the buck, and when he stopped I shot him. We saw him run through the creek and up the hill. It was getting dark and I was not too sure of my shot, so we decided to let him lie down and we were going to find him the next day.

Sunday, October 25th

We went back to our hunting spot to see if we could find my deer. My Grandpa and I walked up to where I shot my buck to look for blood. I was so excited that we found the blood trail and couldn't wait to find my deer. We were walking the blood trail until I saw him just to my right. I was so excited when I saw him, but my Grandpa was even more excited because he helped me get my first whitetail deer. I had such a good weekend that I knew the smile on my face would stay there for a long time. When it was time to go home all I was thinking about was my exciting hunting trip and I can't wait till next season.