Hunting in the early days of November can be a time of quiet anticipation and sudden action. As rifle season approaches, many hunters, like myself, spend their days in a bow stand, hoping for that perfect opportunity. Last year was no different, and while I passed up a couple of good bucks early in the month, I wasn’t in a rush. I had bigger deer on camera and plenty of time to wait.
But as the days leading up to rifle season passed, the deer activity slowed dramatically. With three days of almost no sightings, I began to wonder if I had missed my shot. The rifle opener arrived, crisp and cold, and Anse, my 7-year-old son, and I sat in a box blind. The morning passed without a single deer, and the evening hunt was equally uneventful.
Then, in the final moments of legal light, Anse’s shout broke the silence: “There’s a deer!” A buck, nose to the ground, appeared 200 yards away, moving quickly across the field. I scoped him with my binoculars and immediately decided he was too small. But Anse, full of excitement, urged me to shoot. Without much thought, I took the shot—a clean heart shot that dropped the 90-inch 7-pointer in his tracks.
As I walked up to the buck, I reflected on how I had passed up much bigger deer just days earlier while hunting with a bow. But this was a teaching moment with my son, so I smiled and gave him a high-five. His innocent question, “Did you know he was that little when you shot him?” made me laugh, but it also made me think.
Every deer is a trophy in its own right, and the freezer will be full. But every hunter experiences what I like to call “ground shrinkage”—when a buck looks smaller after the shot than it did in the field. This happens to everyone, even the best hunters. The rut makes it harder to judge size accurately, and tunnel vision can cloud judgment. When a buck appears unexpectedly, the decision to shoot can be made in an instant, and sometimes it results in shooting a smaller deer than originally planned.
In the end, the hunt is about more than just the size of the deer. It’s about the experiences shared and the lessons learned, especially when hunting with family. It’s also a reminder that we all have to own our decisions in the field and move forward, knowing that the next hunt is always just around the corner.
