Chapter 1 WELCOME TO DEER HUNTING On a sunny late-November afternoon a young woman stands with her brother and father on a snowy ridgetop talking softly 4
Hunters often kneel or lie down to use the ground to help support their shots Soon their plan is set The young woman walks a long loop through fields and across pastures She enters a wooded area goes down a steep hillside and sits near the bottom where the forest meets a marsh 5
Deer often use the same trails But if they sense danger they may use different routes Three deer trails come together here The woman’s family will walk through the forest toward her and try to get a deer to move in her direction Her brother and father spread out across the forested hillside They begin walking toward the waiting shooter They walk slowly pausing often to spook any deer hiding 6
in the brush The hunters push through thickets where deer like to hide The hunters know where the young woman is waiting They will not shoot in her direction The woman watches the woods ahead fifteen minutes twenty minutes a half hour The warm sun makes her a little sleepy But then shuffling leaves and a cracking twig alert her She rises slowly to one knee A buck The male whitetail runs off the hillside turns left and runs straight toward her Then the buck switches trails It slows and passes only 30 yards 27 m away It pauses to smell the breeze The woman aims her rifle Boom The buck jumps and runs off with the shot The young woman’s family arrives Together they find some deer hair and follow sprays of blood along the trail Soon they spot the deer ahead a buck stretched out in the leaves 7
