ENC 1101-B3 & B4: Writing for Discovery

Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. The drones of the alarm filled the young boys room. After several minutes of the annoying sound, Eric began to move and quickly rolled over, shut off the alarm and got out of bed.

He was so excited! He was finally old enough to go hunting with his father. So many times he had watched his father leave in hopes of bagging the big buck but Eric was not old enough. This time was different, he was on his way to the woods.

For the previous Christmas, Eric asked for gun to go deer hunting. Christmas morning came around and Eric definitely wasn’t disappointed. Under the tree sat a brand new Browning 30-30 with a Simmons scope. He had spent the whole off-season sighting it in and learning how to handle the gun. He was dead on at 100 yards and new he wouldn’t miss the opportunity to bag a huge buck.

After getting out of bed he quickly jumped into his camouflage and boots and ran into his father’s room. He ran to the side of his bed and shook him to wake him up.

“Dad, wake up. Its time to go.”

His father jumped out of bed and began getting dressed.

“Dad hurry up. We need to get going. Its already 5:45 and the sun comes up at seven.

“Son, settle down we have plenty of time. I promise we will be there early.”

“Okay, I’m just really excited. I can’t wait.”

Within a matter of minutes Eric and his father had gathered all their things and headed out to the truck.

It was about a half-hour to their hunting lease on the outside of town. The whole way there Eric couldn’t be still or quiet. You could tell the suspense was killing him. Finally, they arrived at the dirt road that led back to the lease.

“Dad, look!” Eric shouted, as he pointed out the window to a deer bounding away into the bushes.

“That’s a good sign son, looks like this cold snap really has them up and moving. It should be a good day.”

The truck came to a stop and Eric, of course, was first out of the truck. The first thing he did was jump into the bed and find his gun and loaded it up. Before his father could even get his things together, Eric started up the trail that led to the ground blind, which they were to hunt on this day.

Not long after starting up the trail his father caught up with him.

“Goodness boy, you’re in a hurry aren’t you? I can still remember my first hunt. I know how it is, but you need to relax ‘cuz when one walks out your gonna be nervous and it might cause you to miss him and we don’t want that.”

“Oh, don’t worry I wont miss, I promise. I’m gonna drop him, he won’t even take a step.”

They finally got settled into the ground blind at 6:30 just as the sun started coming over the horizon.

“Son, there is nothing like the woods coming alive. Just listen to the sounds as all the animals wake up. The birds begin chirping, the squirrels begin moving in the trees and there's no better sound in the world.”


They sat together, told stories and watched intently for any movement in the bushes.

An hour passed and still no deer to be seen. Suddenly there was movement at the far end of the field.

Eric tapped his father on the arm being extra careful not to make too much noise or movement in order to not scare it away.

“Dad, there’s one on the far end of the field.”

“Yeah, it sure is,” as he picked up the binoculars to take a better look. “Oh my goodness son, what a buck!”

The deer walked out into the field away from the bushes and gave them a good look. It was a monster of a buck, at least a 12 point.

“Okay son, this is a shooter. Get your gun up and put the cross hairs right behind the shoulder.”

Eric raised his rifle and allowed the cross hairs to fall right behind the shoulder like his dad had ordered him.

“Eric, let him turn broad side, take a deep breath, let it out and take the shot whenever your ready. Just relax.”

“Okay.”
Seconds seemed like hours till suddenly the quietness of the morning woods was broken by the sharp crack of a high powered rifle. The outline of a deer at the end of the field crumbled and fell to the ground.

“Just like I said Dad, he didn’t even take a step!”

“Yeah, great shot son, lets go see what you got.”

Like a kid on the way to the candy store, Eric jumped out of the ground blind and began running down the field to see his first deer. It was a beauty, even bigger than it looked in the binoculars.

“Wow son what a deer. It’s bigger than any deer I have ever killed.”

“Yeah, it’s a great deer. Thanks Dad.”

Eric stood up and gave his dad a huge hug as they both celebrated something that will never be forgotten by either one of them.