Some of you may remember a story I posted last year about taking my grandson on his first deer hunt last year in Missouri's early "youth only" deer season. At that time the boy was going through a rough time with his mom and dad divorcing. We spent a day in the woods and had a great time together that ended with him taking a doe late in the evening after missing a easy shot and getting very discouraged early that morning. Anyone that wants to read about it can find the story by doing a search,
Flash forward another year and we were out there again yesterday morning.This year we did things a little differently and camped in a small tent on Friday night. It was near 70 degrees and warm when we left......but let me tell you it got downright chilly in the night with the temps dropping down into the 30s. We spent a good part of the night huddled together on a small air mattress trying to stay warm!
The boy is a year older and much "wiser" in the way of the woods than he was a year ago, after all, he had blood on his hands last year and was confident......over confident I thought.... that he would do the same this year. He let me know from the beginning that there would be no doe's this year....he planned on taking a buck and would settle for nothing less! I spent a good deal of time talking to him.....trying to lower his expectations. I told him of the many times I had sat in the woods from daylight till dark without seeing a deer.....sometimes for a whole season! Deer hunting could be tough! But he wasn't having anything said to him that would sway him from the certainty that he would have horns hanging from the meat pole on Saturday.
We were settled into our spot near where we hunted last year a good 30 minutes before daylight. Finally warm in his layers of clothing.....he was sound asleep before first light. As the darkness slowly gave way to the light in the woods he slept away. Over the next hour or so I saw 4 different deer cross the hollow a couple hundred yards down from us.........to far for a shot and moving away.....I let him sleep. At about 9:00 a coyote came slinking across the ridge about 50 yards down from us....he must have got wind of us because he suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared right at us for a second before exiting stage right in a hurry! The boy slept right through it.
At about 9:30 he stirred around some awakening and needing to go to the bathroom.After he did his business, he sat back down beside me. I whispered to him that we would sit till 10:00....then move somewhere else. He was awake now.
10 minutes later I heard them coming long before I saw them. I whispered "GET READY!" and a doe came trotting by not 40 yards below us....just behind her was the buck! A quick blow on the grunt call stopped them in their tracks......A single blast from the youth model .243 quickly followed. The doe ran off....the buck went down....shot through the neck.
It has a beautiful 4 point rack on one side .....the other side is broken off with 2 points remaining.The boy insists on calling it a 8 pointer. Heck I told him it was his deer....he could call it a 30 pointer if he wanted!
The last two shots have netted him 2 deer....nothing to this deer hunting he told his mom! As for me, I told him come next year I will be the one sleeping!
Flash forward another year and we were out there again yesterday morning.This year we did things a little differently and camped in a small tent on Friday night. It was near 70 degrees and warm when we left......but let me tell you it got downright chilly in the night with the temps dropping down into the 30s. We spent a good part of the night huddled together on a small air mattress trying to stay warm!
The boy is a year older and much "wiser" in the way of the woods than he was a year ago, after all, he had blood on his hands last year and was confident......over confident I thought.... that he would do the same this year. He let me know from the beginning that there would be no doe's this year....he planned on taking a buck and would settle for nothing less! I spent a good deal of time talking to him.....trying to lower his expectations. I told him of the many times I had sat in the woods from daylight till dark without seeing a deer.....sometimes for a whole season! Deer hunting could be tough! But he wasn't having anything said to him that would sway him from the certainty that he would have horns hanging from the meat pole on Saturday.
We were settled into our spot near where we hunted last year a good 30 minutes before daylight. Finally warm in his layers of clothing.....he was sound asleep before first light. As the darkness slowly gave way to the light in the woods he slept away. Over the next hour or so I saw 4 different deer cross the hollow a couple hundred yards down from us.........to far for a shot and moving away.....I let him sleep. At about 9:00 a coyote came slinking across the ridge about 50 yards down from us....he must have got wind of us because he suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared right at us for a second before exiting stage right in a hurry! The boy slept right through it.
At about 9:30 he stirred around some awakening and needing to go to the bathroom.After he did his business, he sat back down beside me. I whispered to him that we would sit till 10:00....then move somewhere else. He was awake now.
10 minutes later I heard them coming long before I saw them. I whispered "GET READY!" and a doe came trotting by not 40 yards below us....just behind her was the buck! A quick blow on the grunt call stopped them in their tracks......A single blast from the youth model .243 quickly followed. The doe ran off....the buck went down....shot through the neck.
It has a beautiful 4 point rack on one side .....the other side is broken off with 2 points remaining.The boy insists on calling it a 8 pointer. Heck I told him it was his deer....he could call it a 30 pointer if he wanted!
The last two shots have netted him 2 deer....nothing to this deer hunting he told his mom! As for me, I told him come next year I will be the one sleeping!
