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Monday, it was.
"I just went to peek around the tree and there he was," the 44-year-old painter said.
After downing the button buck on State Game Lands 156 near Brickerville, Reed immediately called his wife by cell phone from the woods to break the news that he had finally gotten a deer.
Then he called his parents.
"I told them I'm all a-twitter," Reed said after finding his way to Grier's Custom Butchering near Mount Joy.
"Do you want your back straps butterfly-cut or whole?" Jimmy McKain, the butcher shop's meat manager, asked the still-jazzed hunter.
"This is my first one, so you're going to have to walk me through it because I have no clue," Reed grinned.
Reed was one of thousands of Lancaster County residents, from age 12 to octogenarians, who spent Monday outdoors for the opening of the state's firearms deer season.
More than 30,000 adult and junior hunting licenses were sold in Lancaster County for 2008-2009, and it's a good bet many were dressed in blaze orange Monday morning.
Local game wardens reported a good turnout and no major incidents to mar the opener.
"It's been a safe day; that's what I'm glad about," said Dennis Warfel, the Game Commission's wildlife conservation officer for southern Lancaster County.
A cold, steady rain that began in earnest at midmorning drove some hunters from the woods, but many were piling back in as the rain stopped in the afternoon.
John Veylupek, wildlife conservation officer for the northwestern part of the county, had issued only one citation by late afternoon. That was to a hunter who was hunting over bait — a salt block — in Rapho Township.
Warfel said he investigated a number of spotlighting and nighttime shootings of deer in advance of the season.
But that was mitigated when he met a beaming youth in Martic Township after he had gotten his first deer, a doe, with his dad at his side.
Statewide, the Game Commission expected 750,000 hunters to be in the woods across the state for opening day.
An estimated 80,000 to 90,000 deer were expected to be shot on the first day.
Back at Grier's, Reed was talking about the relief of finally bringing home the venison.
He loves just being in the woods, he said, and enjoyed each and every day afield, deer or no deer.
"I was beginning to think I'd never get one," he said.
He said it will be nice to no longer be razzed at work and be shown photos of deer to remind him what one looks like.
It's an event of such significance that Reed asked McKain to recommend a taxidermist.
It might not be sporting a rack, but Reed wants a head mount to remember a special morning in his life.
Even if his wife already has informed him it will have to be hung in the garage.
