“One more step” I heard Jade, my very first hunting mentor, whisper into my ear. “Now another…stop! He’s looking right at us. Just stay calm we will wait for him to look away.” Stay calm, what a statement laced with irony. At this moment, nothing short of a liberal dose of morphine would have been enough to calm me down. My heart was racing, the adrenaline was circulating through my blood stream and my heart was beating out of my chest. “Ok, we are twenty yards away. Draw.” At that command I slowly applied pressure to the string of my Mathews FX and it easily slid into position. The next command: “wait for him to turn broadside.” Those were the longest 45 seconds of my life. It seemed as if time was playing with me, daring me, seeing if I had what it takes to make the perfect shot. However, I had practiced for months for this moment, and nothing would stop me. I would have held on draw for eternity if it was necessary. The feeling of my very first hunt induced an adrenaline rush I’m sure made holding that bow at full draw a lot easier. Finally the beautiful Corsican ram turned broadside and I let my arrow fly. For me, the arrow travelled in slow motion until finally meeting its mark right behind the shoulder. The ram ran a short distance, and then dropped in sight. I felt as if I were about to collapse or could run a marathon, all at the same time. “Great shot!” I heard my Dad and Jade yelling at me. I finally snapped back into reality, and eagerly accepted the plethora of high fives and hearty slaps on the back that followed. It was my first kill but more importantly, it was a clean kill, with the broadhead-tipped arrow easily passing through the ram’s heart and out the other side. After a short wait we walked up to my trophy and took the first of many pictures that would follow in the upcoming years. It was official, I was hooked.
Posted on
Tue, November 16, 2010
by Alec Janda
filed under