Jason's 1st Buck
by Jason Hubbard

8/04 Onondaga County, NY

My name is Jason Hubbard. I'm 27 years old and live in Marcellus, NY. It's in Onondaga County. I started hunting when I was 16. And after a couple of years sitting in the woods and seeing nothing and only firing 3 shots (all misses), wondering, what is it all good for? So I gave it up. Since then I've gone only a couple of times with a bunch of guys pushing pieces of land. I'd see a lot of deer but they were always in a flat out run. So I still never got a shot off. As I've gotten a bit older, I find it easier to sit in the woods. So I decided to take opening day off from work this year. My father had built a blind on my step brothers land which is directly across the road from his house. He did not take the day off so he told me to go sit there. It was raining and cold so I was excited to have a roof over my head. Well once I got up to the blind, I found that the wind had blown it over. It was impossible to push it back up since it's about 15 feet tall. So I j! ust stood in it. As soon as day broke, it sounded like war. It seemed that I could hear shots all over the county. I hadn't been hunting in quite a while and hearing all those shots, kinda make you nervous. Then I hear a shot about 200 yards away in some hardwood. I was overlooking a field. And instantly after that shot I heard the slug pass by. It sounded like a zipper. Talk about making me nervous. Aside from that, I really enjoyed being out there. There were no bucks out around me for opening day. But I did see 7 doe. I dried out and hunted that evening as well. Again, nothing. But this has been my whole hunting career. I had never seen a buck in the woods while hunting. Sad, but true. So Saturday of that same week, my father and I went out again. He told me to get up in the blind since he had fixed it. So I got up in it with a folding lawn chair and just relaxed. I got in the stand around 6:30. By 6:35 there were two yearlings playing out in the field.! So I got to watch them for about ten minutes. Then I heard that same guy shoot from about 200 yards away. So I got into ready position hoping that whoever had shot was shooting at a buck and missed. And also hoping that it would pop out into this field near me instead of going into the opposite direction. As luck would have it, I heard some rustling around to my left. I looked over and could see a deer in the woods about to step out into a clearing. My heart started to beat. It was in some pretty thick stuff so I could only see that it was a deer and no antlers. The he kinda shook his head and I saw them!! Now my heart is beating out of my chest! I couldn't believe it. I remember putting a bead on him while he was still in the thick and thinking, "here it is....don't blow it!!". My next concern was here he was just sitting there and he was just going to take off. Then he stepped out into the clearing about 45 yards away. I shot and he fell. I was stunned!! I! just got my first deer!! Once I got closer to him, I could see he had a nice rack on him. When I got up to him I could see it was an 8 point. Because this is my first deer, I didn't realize what a nice one it was. It turns out that for around here, it's a pretty respectible 8 point. I never got him scored but we figure he dressed at about 140 lbs. I measured the inside spread and it was just over 12 inches. So he's not a "Monster Buck", but he's enough to make me want to get back out there again next year. Thanks for reading. Email if you have any feedback. jhub7@excite.com

Jason Hubbard