My name is Alex Werner and I am 11 years old. I began hunting with my dad when I was four years old. When I was eight I shot my first deer, a small doe, with a .410 shotgun. I was very excited. I then had a couple of unsuccessful years. I am going to tell you about the first buck I shot with my dad. I was using a 20-gauge shotgun. It was November 12, 2011, the first day of the Indiana gun season.
That morning my dad and I had gone hunting and we saw two deer. The first passed through a narrow opening without allowing us a shot. The second one came right where the first one did. It was a four-pointer. Since there was a tree in the way of my view, my dad shot it. I helped him field-dress it and asked to go with him again later that evening. The day had been really windy and it was difficult to hear anything.
We sat all afternoon without seeing much of anything. At about 5:00 p.m., I was watching a squirrel when my dad looked over and saw the deer. It had sneaked up behind us and stood no more than 30 yards away. It stepped behind a tree and stood motionless, looking around, for about five minutes. It was really close. My dad said it was the closest one he had ever seen in the stand that we were in. I was really nervous and could feel my heart beating almost uncontrollably.
Finally, it stepped out a couple of steps from the tree and I shot. When I shot I was so excited I didn't really take my time aiming. It dropped right where it had stood. I was shaking and when it fell down I started screaming. Then I didn't wait at all to get down and look. When we got down we went over and saw that it was a large eight-pointer. It was my first buck and my second deer. After we admired the beautiful buck for a while we were joined by my mom, my two brothers and my grandpa. I couldn't wait until the next day because we were going to check it in. I was really happy with my first buck.