After having my first hunting blooper by yelling "Grrr" to the approaching bear; family and friends wondered what other "Heidi" moments were yet to come.

My first gun season… I had not even held a gun, 5 months earlier but, I was eager to harvest a Wisconsin Whitetail. On the last light hours of opening day, my boyfriend Brent and I tried our luck together in a stand overlooking his families land. We had rows of corn in either direction and to our right a horseshoe shape of ridge and pines.

I had been disappointed that I had spooked a few deer earlier that morning by being overly excited to the sounds of the woods and as the sun was setting my excitement was turning to tiredness. We had just finished talking about how we would soon quit for the day when Brent brought to my attention a slow moving deer about 150 yards across the field.

As Brent put the glass on the deer he announced that it was a nice 6 pointer. And if I wanted to have my first gun hunting experience, now is my chance. He directed me to slowly bring up my gun from its resting position and take a shot if and when I felt ready.

I felt ready alright! My heart was pounding and time stood still it seemed as I reached for my gun and brought it up to brace it on the edge of the railing. And as I brought my head in to focus my attention to the deer through my sight, Brent asked, " Ah, Heidi, you might want to flip your gun around unless you have some new way of sighting in using your trigger?

In all of my excitement, I managed to bring my gun up but had it resting upside down on the railing with the trigger in place of my sights. Oh, I felt silly and stupid but, I sure was excited! After I aligned my gun properly and took a few deep breaths, I took aim and took a shot at 150yards.

Although I did not harvest that particular deer during gun season, I did have a good opportunity to good out of my system my ‘first time jitters’