Final Draft-Hunting Paper

Jeff Raasch

Mrs. Allard

September 26, 2010

     Throughout everyone’s life, different things happen that change all of us forever, and make us who they are today. These events may be a death in the family, or even an experience you had with someone at some time that touched them in a way they never thought possible. An event in my life that has changed me as a person and as a hunter is when I became part of my family’s hunting tradition. It was a long and stressful process which took years to fully accomplish, but the start of it was an experience I would never forget.
It was a cold and snowy Saturday morning. The time was 4:30a.m and my alarm was yelping in my ear, which meant one thing… hunting season was only hours from beginning. I was 12 years old and finally ready to start my first year of hunting with my dad and two older brothers, Bobby and Tommy. My twin brother Jason was also 12 and old enough to hunt along me, my brothers and my dad. I had already gotten all of my hunting clothes and belongings ready the night before so that I could get a head start in the morning, and be ready to go on time. It was becoming close to leaving time so I double checked to make sure I had everything that I would need to go hunting. As my family and I made our way out to our hunting land, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions. I was excited, pumped up, happy, and ready to start hunting, but most of all I was nervous and scared. I never knew I could feel such crazy and opposite emotions, but it was uncontrollable and being poured on me all at once. What made me so nervous was that this was the year that I would hopefully become one of the guys. This meant someone who was a man now. To become a man and one of the guys, I would have to shoot my first deer, and preferably a buck, but this was no easy task. I would not only have to overcome what hunters call “buck fever”, but I would also have to steady my nerves and make a clean and deadly shot. Buck fever is when a buck or doe comes walking through the woods towards you and you start shake uncontrollably. You hear nothing but the sounds of the deer, inching its way towards you; and you wait for it to present a shot so that you can shoot it.
The challenge was well-known as I climbed into my tree stand. As I sat down in my chair, which was placed on the wooden platform below me, I took a moment to recognize my surroundings and placed my things down next to me. I propped my gun up against the tree, and my fanny-pack full of snacks and pop on the wooden platform below. After everything was set down and in place, and I was comfortably sitting down in my chair, I took a moment to see what was around me. I was surrounded by woods to my left and right, and an open hay field in front and behind me. There was a fresh scent of cool, wet outdoors in the air. It was almost as if there was no sound anywhere. The wind was calm and cooling, and the temperature was near a shivering 20 degrees. As I sat in my stand, patiently waiting for something to happen, I watched the sun peak out from behind the hills and start to slowly melt away the snow. Then, all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something peeking its way out into the hay field in front of me. My first thought was that I was only seeing things, and that it was nothing. But to my excitement, it was a young doe and hopefully my first deer. I quickly but quietly reached for my gun. The nerves were starting to set in as at this point, and I knew this was my chance to shoot my first deer. Next, I slowly raised my gun to take the shot. I knew that I needed to hit the deer just behind its front shoulder in order to kill it quickly and easily. I steadied my gun and aimed right where I needed to. As the shot went off, and the smoke cleared, I saw the deer drop to the ground, and the rest is history.
That night back at the house, my family and I sat down talked about the day of hunting. I couldn’t explain the feeling that I had at that moment, knowing that I had finally taken the first step in becoming a man and had been a part of my family’s hunting tradition. Traditions can contain many different things and have several different meanings. Some traditions may consist of making a certain food for the holidays, or even singing a certain song during a family members birthday, but one thing in common between all traditions is that they all have a special meaning and are very precious. The only thing left to make me officially part of my family’s tradition was to shoot a buck. That task would be completed a few years later. I hope to one day have a few kids of my own, and I hope that I can teach them how to hunt so they can know the feeling of becoming part of a long and fun hunting tradition. My experience in becoming part of my families hunting tradition was a fun and exciting part of my life, but also a stressful and nervous experience. I continue to hunt every year, and become more and more involved with our family’s ways of doing things, and to me, it never gets old. Hunting is a part of me and my life, and without it, I truly believe that I wouldn’t be the person I am today.