I was 13 when I went on my first successful deer hunt. I was invited onto our neighbors land for a afternoon of cold winter hunting. Our neighbor Robbie runs a deer Outfitting business and has some of the biggest bucks you have ever seen running around on his land. Robbie came and picked me up in his awesome 4 X 4 crew-cab diesel beast of a truck, and off we went for a frigid adventure. Robbie had picked a place for us to hunt where he said the deer filed by all afternoon ... and they would never know we where there. We had both brought our IWOM cold weather hunting suits with us because it was really cold. Now if you know about the IWOM suite, you know that it’s like a sleeping bag with arms so you can shoot and stay warm all day. However when you are walking to or from your stand you need to pull the bag up from your legs and it works like a winter jacket so you can walk. Robbie didn't feel like pulling up the bag from around his legs so when he went up the hill, he did not make it all the way to the top before he slipped and rolled like a large camo log to the bottom. It was so funny watching him roll to the bottom, that it was all I could do not to fall down the hill after him laughing and scarring all the deer away for miles.

Finally we make it to the top of the hill and are ready to hunt. So we are waiting for the deer and he decides to move his head up a little to look for deer, and ends up scarring a big buck that was coming in. He ducks backs down and tells me about the buck he saw. I made sure to thank him properly for scaring it a way ( a long cold look). Five minutes later these fat, fat, fat, does come in. They are going to pass by at 20 yards (so says Robbie and I agree). So I get myself set and draw the bow waiting for the right time to put a Muzzy Phantom broad-head through my first deer. Finally the deer is in front of me stopped, broadside at 20 yards. I released the arrow and send my Gold-tip to do its job.. This was my first shot at a deer and in the excitement I wasn’t sure that I hit it but thought the shot was good. Robbie however was sure that I had missed. After the shot all I saw was a group of deer running off across the field. Robbie who is sitting next to me taping it all, looks back at the tape and says no you did not get it.

Shortly after that a second heard of deer come down the path getting ready to pass me by on the same route as the first set of does did. The big difference this time, was that one of the deer was a nice buck. I will have a clear shot at my first buck broadside at 20 yards. Unfortunately, Robbie is now second guessing the yardage estimate of 20 yards. He tells me to shoot the buck at 15 yards instead. So knowing that Robbie is a much better Hunter than myself I do as I’m told. Guess what happened, yep ... it went right under the deer... So not to be discouraged... or show any common sense, we wait until a 3rd heard of deer come along on the now familiar path. I swear they were modeling past us just daring me to try and take a shot. I was waiting for the perfect chance as this was my 3rd and final arrow. Once again I was set on getting the nice buck within the group of deer. This time Robbie tells me to shoot it at 30 yards to be sure we get it. As I sit frozen behind a hill waiting, I am freezing my small little fingers off. The Buck finally comes in and stops broadside looking away. I loose my arrow only to see it sail over the bucks back and disappear into the cornfield beyond. This buck was better than the first buck and that buck was nice. So now I am out off arrows and more deer are certain to come down this whitetail highway any moment. Robbie tells me to go out into the field to get my arrows and that next time I need a bigger quiver.

So now I'm so cold I'm shaking while bumbling around in a corn field trying to find my lost arrows and feeling more the idiot with every passing second. Robbie however is sitting nice and comfortable on the hill whistling to me to go to left or right to locate the ever elusive arrows. I must have looked like a lost dog looking for a bone. After what seemed like forever I just settled for finding 2 arrows and didn't care about the 3rd. Robbie must have seen the pathetic frozen look on my face because he asked me if i wanted to stay longer or go in. I chose warmth over the frozen nightmare that I had been living. Before I was adopted, I lived in Siberia until 9 years old. I became a US citizen on the 4th of July 2006 when I arrived in Atlanta with my new parents. Judging by how cold I was on that hunt , I guess I have become more accustomed to Kentucky than to Siberia.

After a while my parents got to Robbie’s cabin to see how the hunt went. We connected the camera to the TV so my parents could see all my missed deer. But after we looked at my first shot we realized that I had in fact hit the first doe that I shot at. Amazing my first opinion that it was 20 yards was correct !! The shot was a little bit back because as we figured out later I had grown a bit and needed a longer draw length than in the beginning of season. I still killed the deer clean as we saw when we recovered my doe the next morning. We followed the blood trail and we found the doe in the middle if the field, still in possession of my missing arrow. It was a hug doe, I mean huge, massive, I tell you. It took us a while to get it into the truck because it was so heavy and big to lift.

As we get back to the cabin Robbie starts making fun of me running out of arrows and tells me to get a 6 arrow quiver. I just gave him the same look as when he scared the first buck away the day before But the real truth is that he was bad at judging distances that day. So we started to call him Robbie Range Finder. Every time we meet a new hunter going out to hunt with Robbie he would tell them about my needing more arrows and I would warn them to bring there own range finder. If you were to ask Robbie what happen that frozen afternoon, he would tell you a whole different story from this, but don’t you believe it because my story is the right one.

I would like to thank Robbie for a taking the time to help a young hunter bag their first deer and create my first hunting story that I can share for years. With any one that want to hear the real story.

Katie Davies