Jeff Raasch
Mrs. Allard
September 26, 2010
Throughout everyone’s life, different things happen that change them forever, and make them who they are today. These events may be a death in the family, or even an experience they 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 families 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 finally 12 years old and 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 close and belongings ready the night before so that I could get a head start in the morning, so I would be ready to go. 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 starts hunting, but most of all I was nervous and scared. What made me so nervous was that this was the year that I would become one of the guys, 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 have to overcome what hunters call “buck fever.” This 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 set as I climbed into my tree stand. As I sat down in my chair, which was places on the wooden platform below me, I took a moment to recognize my surroundings and set my things down next to me. I set 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 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 part of my families hunting tradition. The only thing left to make me officially part of the 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. 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.
Jeff Raasch
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