A WIDE WORLD OF HUNTING
and the
GREAT OUTDOORS
The New Jordan Buck
My name is Jordan Nanney, I am 15 years old. This is the story of my first muzzle-loader buck.
I woke up to the sound of my Aunt Linda’s alarm clock before daylight on the morning of Friday October 12, 2007. Fortunately I was out of school that Friday and was able to spend the morning in the woods.
After I had got my hunting clothes on, ate a pop-tart, and put on some cover scent I headed out to the stand. Since it was still dark I took a flashlight with me to find the trail into the woods and then my way to the stand. I jumped some deer on my way in to the woods. I had to find my way in the dark by locating stumps that were familiar to me. After I finally made it across a valley and to the stand, I climbed up and sat there waiting for the sun to come up.
When the sun did rise, there was not much movement…just a couple of birds and squirrels. As I sat there waiting, I noticed the leaves were moving below me. It was some sort of lizard that changed colors as it moved into different colored areas. It amused me and since I wasn’t seeing any deer, I watched the lizard to pass the time. After the lizard moved off, I just took in the awesomeness of nature for a few hours. I told myself that when the shadow of my head gets to a certain point on the ground, I am going to go ahead and leave, because nothing is happening. My shadow reached that point, but I did not feel like it was quite time to go, so I waited another twenty minutes or so. Around 10:30 a.m. just as I was getting ready to leave, a deer just appeared, without a sound.
I took my gun out of my lap, rested it on the bar of the tree stand and followed the deer for about 30 yards. It was about to go behind some laurel bushes where it would be out of sight, so I grunted at it. It stopped and I aimed at it, I thought it was a doe. I pulled the trigger and smoke went all in my face. I stood up and tried to breathe without coughing until the smoke cleared so I would not spook the deer, if it was not dead. I sat down and watched; after the smoke cleared I realized that I had made a pretty good shot because I heard the deer fall, and then I heard it slide. I was shaking all over. It took me awhile to get the gun reloaded, but I finally managed. I called my Uncle David with my cell phone to let him know that I had shot a deer.
I heard someone behind me say “Hey!” I did not know any one else was in the woods with me, but as I turned around I realized it was my uncle’s brother, “Bill”. We started talking and I told him I thought I got a doe. After a few minutes, my uncle David arrived and asked me which way she went and we walked down in that direction looking for blood. We found some and began to follow it. We found the spot where the deer slid down the bank and I looked and saw it in the creek. That’s when I realized it was a spike, I got really excited and so did David. He congratulated me and we celebrated for a few minutes over my first muzzy. Then we realized we had a long haul ahead of us, up a steep hill because his tractor would not make it into the valley. Linda videotaped us dragging it out. We were pretty tired by the time we made it into David’s yard.
Getting my first muzzy is an experience that I will never forget.
By
Jordan Nanney
Rutherford County
Western North Carolina
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