Hunter’s Journal August 2016

By Briana Gerrin

I began my morning going to meet my dad for our usual Saturday morning hunt. We loaded up the truck carrying the same 30-30 Marlin rifle my dad shot his first deer with in 1984. This same gun was stolen along with every gun Dad owned in 1997. In 2013, Dad got a call that the gun had been recovered, and he could go to North Carolina to claim it. Little did we know that I would kill my first deer, “Big Wally,” with the same gun.

As we arrived at our usual hunting spot that we had been hunting together all season, we quietly walked to our stands, situated side by side, around 6:30 a.m. We climbed in and waited for daylight to break.

My dad began using a grunt call, and at approximately 8:10, this deer came from a bottom thicket, slowly walking in our direction. I had passed up so many bucks prior to this morning. I have seen a buck chasing a doe, a doe eating acorns so close I could hear her crunch, watched two bucks fighting, and I have never gotten the feeling my dad calls “buck fever” until I laid eyes on Big Wally. 

I actually spotted Big Wally just before my dad. I was all bundled up with a scarf over my nose and mouth and ice breakers on my feet. With the temperature at 28 degrees, it was cold. I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

I whispered, “Dad do you see it?” I was so excited, not knowing if he was answering me or not. 

I continued to say “Dad, do you see it? Oh my gosh, Dad, do you see it?” 

And he said, “Shhhhhhh!”

“When you get a chance pick up your gun,” he added. 

So I did. I went to aim my gun, propping my elbow on my knee, and the next thing I heard my dad say was, “Quit shaking!” 

My leg was jumping like someone who was having a seizure. No matter what I did, I could not control the jerk in my leg. At that point Big Wally was pawing and breaking limbs as he was still approaching us. 

My Dad said, “I am going to stop him.” 

Dad fawn bleated with his mouth, and Big Wally stopped in his tracks. 

“Can you get a shot?” Dad asked.

“I can’t see him, he stopped behind the tree,” I said.

At that point the deer walked on, and Dad did another fawn bleat. Big Wally stopped again! By that point he was approximately 40 yards away, and this time I was able to take a shot. When I did, Big Wally ran about 50 yards and dropped. I was so excited! 

We sat for about two hours because every time we started to get down, we had more bucks come in. A smaller 6-point kept circling Big Wally. I think he was thinking he might be “The Man” now that Big Wally was gone. 

I couldn’t wait to get down. All I could do is stare at him. The whole time I thought he was a 10-point, but when we actually got to him, he was an 11-point. He had about a 1-inch kicker off the back left side. 

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that while we were still in the stand, my dad and I both texted my mom to tell her I had gotten my first deer, a monster spike. She was so excited for me, but the joke was on her. 

When we pulled up at the house, she came out and was saying, “Oh my gosh, Briana! Who shot that deer? Did y’all find it?”

Her reaction was priceless! She and my boyfriend both had been questioning if we were really going hunting because I hadn’t shot anything but was always talking about what we had seen. But the wait was so worth it.

After Briana Gerrin, 26, killed “Big Wally,” she qualified herself for this year’s Truck-Buck Shoot-Out by winning Week 15 North.