Indiana Eight Point

by Tyler Wilkinson
(Terre Haute, IN, USA)

I'm 14 years old and I have been hunting for three years. About a week before I shot this buck I shot at a 4 pointer with a bow and missed right over the top of him. The first day of gun season I got into my stand that morning thinking about that 4 pointer that got away. My step dads stand is about 80 to 100 yards away from the stand I was in, I kept on hearing things at the bottom of the hill but I couldn't tell what it was. About 20 minutes to a half an hour later I heard big, heavy footsteps behind me, I turned around to see what it was and it took my breath, It was a big 2 1/2 to 3 year old buck, it looked like it was heading north towards my step dads stand but he stopped and then started to head my way. When he was about 50 yards away I pulled back the hammer on my .410, I waited for about 3 minutes to let him get close enough where I could have a sure shot. He got around 35 yards and I pulled the trigger, when I saw the fire come out of the barrel I knew it was a good shot. I saw him drop his back legs and I thought that I had shot one of his back legs, as soon as I saw him drop I called my step dad. I waited for what seemed like an eternity until my step dad got there. At that time the deer was still moving his front legs, then I figured out that I had shot him in the spine. I am glad that I shot him where I did because if he would've gone 5 more feet he would've fell down a holler that is about 60 feet deep. We went to the truck to put our guns up and warm up for a couple minutes. We got back and he was dead, he ended up weighing around 190.