Raegan's First Buck | Savage Journeys

Raegan Pirtle had an opportunity to shoot her first buck with Brittany of Outdoor Mentors as part of Savage Journeys. She tells us about growing up in a family that hunts, and getting to take part in a mentored hunt to get her first deer! 

Growing up in a family that hunts, I have heard quite a few stories and gained a bit of knowledge about hunting, but never enough of either to go out and be successful on my own. I found out about the Savage Journeys hunt because I shoot trap on my high school trap team. When my Trap Shooting Coach presented me with the opportunity to go on a hunt with Brittany with Outdoor Mentors, I was super excited to learn and harvest a deer.

Being involved in my high school trap team, I was very familiar with shotguns but not rifles. Brittany and I practiced shooting different rifles in preparation for the hunt. It was definitely different since I was so used to pulling the trigger quickly when shooting trap. I focused on taking a deep breath and pulling the trigger slow instead of quick, like you would shooting a clay target. Shooting clay targets is far different from shooting a deer, but being comfortable with a gun was beneficial.

Our hunt was far from perfect. We didn’t see anything within a good distance the first night, but saw a lot of deer. The second morning the fog was thick and kept the deer on edge in the tree line. Finally, on the third day I got my deer. I wouldn’t have made the hunt any easier if I could. I learned that hunting sometimes takes improvising and a lot of patience. Each roadblock just added to the excitement and adrenaline when I finally got a shot at my first buck.

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to shoot my very first deer using a Savage 110 Storm, mentored by such an amazing person as Brittany. I love watching the filmed hunt and showing it to my friends.