I have to say this was one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done. As soon as I stepped into the edge of my woods and the trees closed behind me, I felt like I had entered another world. My senses magnified; I crept along slowly, stopping every step or two to listen. My eyes soon learned to pick up animal trails and I could actually follow them. I found a place that looked perfect.
I felt like a different person; my senses were so alert and I was living so much in the moment. It was amazing. I stood on the horizontal limb and leaned against the vertical limb with my back. I slowly scanned from side-to-side. I had been there less than an hour when I saw the outline of a deer, no, two deer! But wouldn't you know it, they were coming up behind my right shoulder
. How in the world was I going to keep my balance on this limb and turn around to shoot in that direction? Well, I didn't know, but I had to try, so I slowly began to move around. They were aware of me and were watching carefully. But they didn't seem afraid, just watching. I did something that startled them and they jumped 2 or 3 times. That's when I saw 3 white tail flags - three deer! All does, which was what I wanted because I wanted the mildest meat I could get in order to get my pickier children to eat venison. When they quit jumping and looked back at me and didn't see anything alarming, they began to move across behind me, about 40-50 feet away. I almost cried out, "Yes!", because now, I could swivel around to the left, which was more natural for me, a right-handed shooter. Besides, the tree I was leaning against could hide my movements. I could see them moving through thick trees, but it was about sundown, and light was dim. Also dumb-bunny that I was, I had my scope on full power (at that time, I didn't know I could adjust it). So when I looked through the scope, I couldn't tell what I was looking at until I caught movement. I was basically seeing hair! Then I found the head, followed the neck down, wondered if I should shoot lower since the deer was so close and I had sighted in for 100 yards not 50 feet! Bang! I looked up, smoke obscured my view, the deer hesitated for a brief second, and then they all took off in three different directions! I did not know which deer I had aimed at, not being able to translate what I saw in my scope to real life. Every nerve fiber I have was zinging! It was glorious! 
Somehow, I managed to get down out of the tree. I kind of felt like this one deer was the one I had aimed for, so after checking for blood and not seeing any (but it was getting dark and it had been drizzling so all the leaves on the ground were wet), I took off in the direction of that one deer. I tried to follow it, but I was too 'hyped up' to follow a trail and after about ten minutes I gave up. I then went back to the place when I had shot, got out my flashlight and checked again for blood, did a few bigger & bigger circles around that spot and saw nothing. I finally decided that I must have shot over the deer's back since I was so close, and also because the deer seemed to hesitate before running. But I didn't came down from my 'high' after thinking that I must have missed. I think I was just so excited that I could see trails, find a good spot to wait, and then actually see deer and get a shot my first season to try hunting. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but hey, I was excited!
I didn't get a chance to go back out for several days. When I did, I just went to look. I found the spot again, could see actually deer 'prints' (a leaf turned over here, a smushed leaf there), and followed them. And there she was.
So sad.
Already smelling bad.
I could have puked.
And so that's why I say I learned that there was more to hunting than hitting a target!
Great story! Thank goodness you just shot a deer. I thought you were going to say that you shot the gun and fell out of the tree! Do you already have a plan for how you're going to dress a deer and butcher it? I'm sure you'll have better luck next time you try it!
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