Gerald Townsend – Green Bay, WI

My wife and I have six children. Our first four are boys and the last two are twin girls. The girls are twelve years old and asked if they could try hunting. Well, the older brothers are jealous now. My daughter, Danielle, shot this buck this weekend with her twin, Lydia, and me, her dad. She used a .280 Remington at 175 yards. It is a 10-point buck, 19½ ” wide rack outside spread with a Green Score of 136 2/8, for the hunters that know what that means. It was her first buck–the first day ever hunting. She was participating in Wisconsin’s youth hunt this last weekend. I never shot a buck this big but I have guided to a few. It was a very hard shot she made; the deer was facing us with its head down. She took one shot and broke its back–exactly were I told her to aim. All her big brothers have to look up to their little sister now!

Best regards,
Gerald Townsend

*Now from Danielle’s perspective…*

The most memorable outdoor experience in my life was my first hunt. It really surprised me–shooting our family’s biggest whitetail trophy buck so far! I will never forget it.

It all started when my dad told my twin sister, Lydia, and me to start preparing for our hunt. We were to do this by first attending our local Hunter Safety class. Dad also had us pick up his unloaded rifle in the living room and look through the scope to find objects outside like branches, patches of leaves, stumps, and the deer target. We practiced and practiced the week before leaving for hunting camp. When Friday morning finally came, we packed everything we needed for the two-day hunt into our Chevy pickup and hit the road for Ashland, Wisconsin.

The next morning, we got up at five o’clock in order to eat breakfast and get out to the stand before daylight when the deer would begin to move. It had snowed overnight and was still dark as we climbed the twenty feet into the stand. As it was getting light, we watched out the windows. Dad whispered to us, “Watch out this window. Pretty soon an eagle will fly past.” Sure enough–just then, the beautiful eagle took off from its nest high up in a tree and flew past us. What a neat sight!

That day was also windy. In fact, it was so windy that the whole stand was rocking back and forth. We were disappointed because the wind tends to scare animals and the bucks stayed away. All we saw were some does and fawns wandering through once in awhile, squirrels scurrying around, and birds flitting back and forth. We took turns watching and resting since we had gotten up so early. By noon, we decided to go back to camp for lunch. We ate our sandwiches and relaxed as we played some card games. While we were eating, Dad told us, “Don’t you dare squeeze the trigger unless you have a full view in the scope and the crosshairs are on the buck!” He also reminded us that if the buck was looking at us, we were to shoot him right in the chest but, if he was sideways, we should shoot him right behind the shoulder.

When we got back to the stand, we sat and watched all afternoon. The deer just were not moving. As it started getting dark, we took one last look around before stopping for the day. My sister and I saw a fawn on one side of the stand and were wondering where the mother was when my dad said he saw what he thought was an eight-point buck out a different window. We carefully opened the window and got the gun. I was looking everywhere for the buck because only my dad had seen it. For that very reason, he was whispering, explaining to me where it was. As I looked through the scope, I kept missing the buck because he was facing us with his head down behind a brush pile eating acorns from an oak tree. Finally, when I was slowly passing over him again, he brought his head up. Carefully I aimed straight for his spine and squeezed the trigger. I had taken the shot from about 175 to 200 yards away and the buck dropped right in his tracks without moving an inch! We got out of the stand and hurried over to him, only to find out it was a ten-pointer! I had hit the buck dead center in the spine with a .280 Remington! We made sure he was dead and tagged him immediately.

We had already planned to go out to eat for dinner so as we got in the truck to leave, I called my mother back home. She said I sounded too calm for it to be true. However, she knew it was when she talked to Dad because he was so excited! When we got to the restaurant, I called my grandfather since we hunt on his land. He could not believe it! He asked me to tell him the whole story. For the next couple of days I got phone calls from family members congratulating me. My dad could not stop bragging for weeks–he still brags whenever he gets a chance. He put my picture in two newspapers, I am all over Facebook, and my aunt had me put on a radio station website.

On Sunday, we made the four-hour drive back home. When we got there and compared my antlers with those from past hunts, even the other nice ten-point rack from last year’s hunt fit inside mine. As soon as we could, we got on the internet to see how Boone and Crockett would score my buck. With the outside spread of the antlers at 19½ inches, it’s green score was 136 2/8!

I am surprised that I have the biggest buck in the family since I have four older brothers and a father that hunt. My father was very proud but admitted to being a little jealous, too. If I had not gotten this one now, he thought he might have shot it during the regular hunting season since we had been hunting out of his stand. Although, when he got to thinking about it, he realized there would be several other people hunting on that land then, too, so someone else may have been the lucky one.

As you can imagine, I was very excited when I got my first deer. Taking time to practice finding objects in the scope of the gun the week before the hunt really paid off in the end. I shot my trophy buck only 56 days after acing my Hunter Safety test!