Buck fever
Heart hammering against the rib cage.
Blood pounding in the temples.
It's difficult to aim, but a deep breath later and the buck is steady in the sights.
Then, bang!
It happens so fast. It's simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying.
It's called “Buck Fever,” and the Osborn family is well acquainted with the phenomenon.
So are most avid hunters.
“It's like your heart is going to jump out of your chest,” said Amber Osborn, a Grove City native and girls basketball coach at Slippery Rock High School.
She, her husband, Doug, and their five children — Maddie, 11, Kyle, 10, Bri, 9, Jude, 7, and even 4-year-old Willa, can be found on a regular basis in a blind or a tree stand during hunting season.
They were there Saturday and Sunday on their sprawling, 80-acre property in Mercer County — the opening weekend of firearms hunting season.
For the Osborns, hunting is more than just a hobby.
It's time to bond.
It's time to teach and learn.
And it also puts food on the table for their big family over the winter.
“It's the challenge, the thrill,” Osborn said of her family's strong draw to hunting, “and also feeding your family.”
And it's also the joy.
Maddie screamed when she got her first doe last season during rifle season.She jumped up and down.She cried.“I was just super excited,” said Maddie, who hadn't really delved deep into hunting until last year. Now, she's hooked. “I had never hunted before.”Maddie added another doe and buck to her total this season. She has “tagged out.”She can't harvest another deer this year.But that doesn't mean Maddie will sit out rifle hunting.“I enjoy just going out and seeing nature,” she said.She also enjoys the family's tree-stand fortress on their property north of Slippery Rock.“It's almost like a tree fort, a little house,” Maddie gushes. “There's windows in it, chairs. I got my doe last year there.”For Amber and Doug, they get a great deal of joy from watching their children hunt.“Doug and I say sometimes it's more thrilling to see your kids shoot a deer than to get one yourself,” Amber Osborn said.
Each of their children find a different aspect of the hunt enthralling.Kyle is perhaps the most into the act of hunting. He enjoys stalking his prey and is the most accomplished of the Osborn brood, bagging one or two deer every season since he was as young as 5.“It's really being patient and being really quiet,” Kyle explains with analysis that belies his youth. “I had an encounter with a buck this year and I stepped on a leaf when I was getting ready to shoot, and he heard it and bounded away.”Kyle said he gets excited when he gets a buck.He said that's because getting one is no small feat.“It's hard to get a buck,” he said. “A doe is a little easier because they aren't as sneaky as a buck and the bucks are smarter, unless it's an old doe. The really old does are really smart.”Jude enjoys tracking the deer.“He loves finding it, touching the eyeballs, all that stuff,” Amber Osborn said, chuckling. “They sit there and watch Doug gut it and how to do stuff properly. Doug will show them how to skin it and then we'll take it to the butcher.”Amber Osborn said hunting teaches lots of lessons to her children.Like patience.“I remember my dad always using the word persistent,” Amber said. “You have to stay persistent.“There's many times Kyle and Maddie and Doug and myself get up early and sit in the freezing cold and see nothing but a squirrel.”
When Amber Osborn was growing up, it was difficult for her to find time to hunt because of her burgeoning basketball career.A standout point guard at Grove City High School and then at Slippery Rock University, basketball season and hunting season were in conflict.“I would go out and sit sometimes, but because hunting season is right in basketball season — unless COVID is involved — I never really started pursuing it a lot until I had graduated from college,” she said.Like with her children, her father, the late Steve McFeely, formed a bond with his kids through hunting.McFeely began dabbling in taxidermy and became so good at it that it turned into a full-time job for him.Doug and Steve also bonded in blinds and on stands.“I remember when Amber shot her first buck. The night she shot it I was standing in the garage with Steve and I asked him if I could have Amber's hand in marriage,” Doug said. “It was one of those times you never forget.”Steve taught Doug some of his taxidermy and mounting skills.When Amber bagged an 11-point buck with a 19-inch outside spread last season, Doug put those skills to use.“He just mounted it (Friday),” Amber said.Hunting also makes grocery shopping easier.“Everybody has gotten a buck or doe, except for Willa,” Amber Osborn said. “With us and my mom (Sally), we go through seven deer a year for the meat. I never buy chicken or meat during the winter. It feeds our family.”For Doug, hunting with his children also is invaluable bonding time.“It's kind of one-on-one time with each individual kid, depending on who goes out each night,” Doug Osborn said. “You get to spend time with them and teach them. They're all different when it comes to how they get excited and all worked up. It's really awesome to see them get excited about something.”
