The Deer I Never Shot (and the Hobby I Never Saw Coming)

To the left, Erik. Everywhere else…no deer.

In late 2024, my neighbor, Erik, asked if I wanted to go deer hunting.

I grew up in the city and I had never hunted a day in my life. Never owned a gun. I honestly didn’t even know what hunting really involved — do we just walk around in camo and whisper a lot?

I was never against hunting or firearms but truth be told, nobody had ever asked me to go. That’s all it took.

He said I could borrow a rifle and tag along just for the experience.

But I don’t do anything half-assed.

So the next week, I went ahead and bought my first rifle. No idea what I was doing — just followed his recommendation and figured I’d learn the rest in the woods.

A few weeks later, we made the drive.

Two hours each way.
Six hours sitting in the cold.
One deer seen — 300 yards away, sprinting like she was already late to not getting shot.

No shots fired. No meat in the freezer. No excitement, really.

And somehow… I was completely hooked.

There was something about it — the stillness, the challenge, the waiting for something to maybe happen — that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

On the ride home, Erik said,
“If you liked this, you’d love bird hunting. We should go shoot skeet soon .”

Spoiler: we did. And that’s when things really got interesting.