Megan Waters - Oklahoma

On opening day of gun season my dad woke me up at 4 in the morning so we could be in our deer blind when the sun came up. After walking to the blind we put out some doe scent so the deer could not smell us. As the morning went by we saw some does and smaller bucks on the No-Plow that we had planted on my grandma’s field. My dad told me that I could shoot at any of the deer we saw, and there was a big one running around the farm that I could shoot if we saw him.

After we went to my grandma's house to eat lunch, we went back to the farm. We walked back to the blind and were putting out more doe scent. I saw a deer on a hill across the draw eating in the middle of the food plot that we had planted a month earlier. I told dad what I saw and when he saw it, he told me to try to call it in with the antlers. Just as soon as I started rattling the antlers the buck started running to us.

Before we could get into the blind the buck was right in front of us. My dad told me to take the deer, that it was a big one. As we waited for it to walk between the trees my knees were shaking. I had shot a 6-pointer the year before. Dad told me to take a deep breath and shoot. It looked so big when I saw it in the scope. My dad was starting to get nervous. He said later that he was about to shoot it because he thought I was going to wait too long.

As I shot, all I could see was a blur. My dad started yelling that I had gotten the buck. As we walked over to it my dad said he could not believe I had shot such a big deer. He had shot a 10-point the year before, but it was not as big as mine.

When we checked it in, the man helping us said it weighed 163 pounds. Everyone there was picking on dad because I shot a bigger deer than he has ever taken. Dad says we are going to plant more food plots next year.