My oldest son is 8 this year and he has taken a doe each of the last 2 years. He shoots a .223 that Santa brought him for Christmas 2 years ago and has become a real fine shot. I was extra proud last year when he made an absolute perfect shot on an old doe. For as young as he is he is always real calm under the pressure of having to get it done. He usually is on his target and killing something before I have a chance to tell him to take his time.
This year I decided that he had been on doe patrol long enough to warrant getting a spike or maybe, if he was real lucky, even a good cull 8 pt. We sat in the stand about 4 sits so far this year and like all 8 year olds he wanted to let the lead fly and kill every little buck with antlers. I explained that we were after a spike that had been coming in and that if we saw a mature 8 he would know it. At one point a couple of weekends back he asked me "Why do we hunt deer...if we aren't going to shoot deer?". Hard to argue with that logic but he calmed down and seemed to understand the “why” of deer management.
This past weekend was different. We sat in the stand Friday evening and he was really into watching. We saw a few young bucks and saw some chasing a doe. And a real nice 3 yr. old 11 that beat the snot out of a little 6 pt. 2 yr. old. My boy was having a blast and seeing things that I didn't even notice. Seemed to me like he was starting to hunt.
As some of you know, when they first start you try to make it fun and easy on them so they enjoy it, but you get to a point when you want them to realize it isn't always fun and easy. It is cold, you have to be quiet, and still and sometimes uncomfortable to get what you want. In the end it is worth it but it is hard to tell a 6-7-8 year old kid that. I think seeing how the deer were interacting and all the other wildlife showed him that you can have fun and see things you won’t see on TV.
Saturday we got a bit of a late start and I was afraid the action would be slow or that we spooked a deer or two on the way to the stand, but when we got in the stand (An open top quad pod) I could still hear some movement under the feeder. When it was light enough to see we saw a young buck and a doe cleaning up the corn. Not long after those two left a deer came into our field of view that was noticeably bigger than anything the boy had seen yet. Big bodied and obviously mature, but still too early for me to make the rack out I told him it wasn’t one that he could shoot. I finally got a good look through the binos and could tell it was a nice deer but the horns didn’t match the body at all. A nice rt. side, but something was off on his left side. I couldn’t decide if the deer hadn’t broken off a tine or two on his left side.
Finally it was light enough I could get some good pictures with my camera, zoom in and study the left side. Seemed like the deer has missing his right eye and the left side of his horns were just malformed. In my opinion a mature 9 that wasn’t getting any better, so I waved at my son to get in my lap and get ready to take the shot. He couldn’t believe that I had decided to let him take the deer, but made no argument. Unfortunately the deer was on to us, and by the time he was set up to shoot and trotted off into the mesquite. I didn’t know what to think, and the boy was devastated. I looked in the floor of the blind and saw a pack-a-rack rattling system. I picked it up gave about 10 seconds of rattling and I could see the deer started coming back in, but held up in the brush. I hit it a time or two more and the deer started closing the distance like he was on a rope. I told my son to get ready and he was more than ready…he tried to shoot the deer before I stopped him and missed over his back. the deer ran 20 yards and stopped, turned to see what had happened and was facing our left perfect broadside. I slipped another shell in closed the rifle, and my son dropped the hammer on him at about 75 yards. The deer mule kicked, then trotted about 20 yards, got stiff legs and tumbled over. Heart shot, and graveyard dead. Needless to say we were a little bit pumped up and my son was coming unglued to go put his hands on him. I made him wait a few minutes while I watched through the scope (It is a .223 after all) but the deer never moved.
I’m proud of him, to say the least, and I feel like handled himself real well. I have better pictures at home but this is a decent one off the iPhone and you get the jest.
The guys in camp had seen the deer last year and knew he had an eye gone by the end of last season. He went downhill this year and they had already cleared him with the lease manager as a cull. They think he was 5.5 which I do too, if not 6.5 years old. It worked out just right, but I’m afraid we might have skipped the spike a bit too far. I’ll worry about that next year.
This year I decided that he had been on doe patrol long enough to warrant getting a spike or maybe, if he was real lucky, even a good cull 8 pt. We sat in the stand about 4 sits so far this year and like all 8 year olds he wanted to let the lead fly and kill every little buck with antlers. I explained that we were after a spike that had been coming in and that if we saw a mature 8 he would know it. At one point a couple of weekends back he asked me "Why do we hunt deer...if we aren't going to shoot deer?". Hard to argue with that logic but he calmed down and seemed to understand the “why” of deer management.
This past weekend was different. We sat in the stand Friday evening and he was really into watching. We saw a few young bucks and saw some chasing a doe. And a real nice 3 yr. old 11 that beat the snot out of a little 6 pt. 2 yr. old. My boy was having a blast and seeing things that I didn't even notice. Seemed to me like he was starting to hunt.
As some of you know, when they first start you try to make it fun and easy on them so they enjoy it, but you get to a point when you want them to realize it isn't always fun and easy. It is cold, you have to be quiet, and still and sometimes uncomfortable to get what you want. In the end it is worth it but it is hard to tell a 6-7-8 year old kid that. I think seeing how the deer were interacting and all the other wildlife showed him that you can have fun and see things you won’t see on TV.
Saturday we got a bit of a late start and I was afraid the action would be slow or that we spooked a deer or two on the way to the stand, but when we got in the stand (An open top quad pod) I could still hear some movement under the feeder. When it was light enough to see we saw a young buck and a doe cleaning up the corn. Not long after those two left a deer came into our field of view that was noticeably bigger than anything the boy had seen yet. Big bodied and obviously mature, but still too early for me to make the rack out I told him it wasn’t one that he could shoot. I finally got a good look through the binos and could tell it was a nice deer but the horns didn’t match the body at all. A nice rt. side, but something was off on his left side. I couldn’t decide if the deer hadn’t broken off a tine or two on his left side.
Finally it was light enough I could get some good pictures with my camera, zoom in and study the left side. Seemed like the deer has missing his right eye and the left side of his horns were just malformed. In my opinion a mature 9 that wasn’t getting any better, so I waved at my son to get in my lap and get ready to take the shot. He couldn’t believe that I had decided to let him take the deer, but made no argument. Unfortunately the deer was on to us, and by the time he was set up to shoot and trotted off into the mesquite. I didn’t know what to think, and the boy was devastated. I looked in the floor of the blind and saw a pack-a-rack rattling system. I picked it up gave about 10 seconds of rattling and I could see the deer started coming back in, but held up in the brush. I hit it a time or two more and the deer started closing the distance like he was on a rope. I told my son to get ready and he was more than ready…he tried to shoot the deer before I stopped him and missed over his back. the deer ran 20 yards and stopped, turned to see what had happened and was facing our left perfect broadside. I slipped another shell in closed the rifle, and my son dropped the hammer on him at about 75 yards. The deer mule kicked, then trotted about 20 yards, got stiff legs and tumbled over. Heart shot, and graveyard dead. Needless to say we were a little bit pumped up and my son was coming unglued to go put his hands on him. I made him wait a few minutes while I watched through the scope (It is a .223 after all) but the deer never moved.
I’m proud of him, to say the least, and I feel like handled himself real well. I have better pictures at home but this is a decent one off the iPhone and you get the jest.
The guys in camp had seen the deer last year and knew he had an eye gone by the end of last season. He went downhill this year and they had already cleared him with the lease manager as a cull. They think he was 5.5 which I do too, if not 6.5 years old. It worked out just right, but I’m afraid we might have skipped the spike a bit too far. I’ll worry about that next year.
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