The Meat Doe
Field & Stream|October 2016

For the author, taking wild game out of the woods is the ultimate, and noblest,trophy.

T. Edward Nickens
The Meat Doe

SHE STEPPED OUT in the open, right where I thought she would. A mature doe, maybe 130 pounds. A 45-yard shot would drop her in the middle of the logging road, and I could drive the truck all the way in. Wouldn’t have to drag her an inch. It was exactly what I’d come for, exactly how I’d planned it. The perfect meat doe. As easy as it gets.

Except I wasn’t quite ready. Like a greenhorn, I had leaned my gun against the wrong corner of the ground blind, and I was seated too far back to rest the rifle on the shooting rail. The blind’s net walls broke up my silhouette, but I still had to move like molasses to get the rifle up and into position. Then, as I eased the gun to my shoulder, a yearling doe stepped out from the woods, feeding beside Mama. 

Ugh. 

That was the last thing I wanted to see. I’ve never cared for shooting a doe with offspring nearby. I don’t harbor any Bambi-hued perspectives on the familial connections of whitetail deer, and that young doe was a good 5 months old—long since weaned and able to make it on her own. It’s simply a choice I’ve made, one of those myriad, and often inscrutable, factors we all calculate when deciding whether or not to pull the trigger. But I was at the right place at the right time for a very specific reason. I go to the deer woods to escape, for camaraderie with pals and family, to stay connected to a primal web that reaches back to the cave paintings at Lascaux. And there are times when I go to the woods with only one thing in mind. Meat.

This story is from the October 2016 edition of Field & Stream.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the October 2016 edition of Field & Stream.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM FIELD & STREAMView All
Field & Stream

LIVING THE DREAM

After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Field & Stream

Get the Drift

How to make an accurate windage call under pressure

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
First Sit
Field & Stream

First Sit

An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Field & Stream

A Local Haunt

The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
A Hop and a Pump
Field & Stream

A Hop and a Pump

Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Welcome TO camp
Field & Stream

Welcome TO camp

Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

THE DEERSLAYERS

Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics

time-read
8 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK

Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else

time-read
10 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Stage Directions
Field & Stream

Stage Directions

When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

Rookie Season

A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020