This summer, my 11 year old son expressed interest in deer hunting, to the extent of not spending any of his odd job/lawn mowing money and conning me into matching funds for a new savage axis II 243 package. I had a great time getting him some trigger time, and while getting him used to shooting centerfire, trying out new loads, and then some basic scope adjustments We settled on sierra 85 gr pills and 35 gr of 3031, low recoil, accurate and enough energy for deer.
Again, I managed to get enough work done in 4 days to qualify for a day off, and it was opening day of general rifle season, We snuck out of the house trying to make sure the dog didn't see us wearing camo, and since that didn't work, we just left my wife with him, and his dissapointment. Little debbies and coffee in hand, we drove to our location, and hoofed it down the road, watching all the atv's in a hurry to get farther than we could, faster. I jumped off the road and over a ridge, giving us a sidehill to watch the sun come up on, and keeping ranges reasonable, a nice log to use as a chair and gunrest, the kid had it made.
The first hour we saw 2 does about 500 yards away, and I could see the dissapointment in my son, not many deer, and nothing that was even moving around till I heard the unmistakable sound of deer bouncing, just couldn't see them so I told Logan to settle into his chair, and be ready. After about 5 minutes, we finally found the deer we had heard, on the other side of the draw, but about 350 yards away, farther than I was comfortable with him shooting. We watched the deer for about 5 minutes through binoculars, and he started getting his first dose of buck fever. The deer moved into the timber, and he was sure they were gone forever, I could hear the disapointment in his voice as he told me he was happy he had at least seen deer, about 3 seconds after he said that, he said he saw deer in the bottom of the draw, and they were headed our way. I finally figoured out where he saw the deer, and got him set up on his logs, waiting till the deer moved into a clearing, It looked like we had a row of does headed in front of us, so I told him the second one looked biggest, when he had a chance he could pull the trigger. The doe stopped on her mark and a shot rang out. I saw her buck, and jump behind a tree, but never saw her come out. The rest of the group bounded up the hill, and Logan was in tears, saying he couldn't believe he missed her. I said I was sure the shot was fair, and in any case, once you pull the trigger, you've got to go look at the shot, make sure you hadn't drawn blood. We marked the location on the opposite slope, and headed down the hill, me fairly confident we would find a deer, and my son sure we were just going to look at dirt.
When we crossed the bottom of the draw, my son looked to the left and right, and said, "there's my deer, RIGHT THERE". The tears were still there, but they were tears of joy as he walked up to his first big game animal. HIs shot was perfect, right behind the shoulder, and 1/4 of the way up the crease. I've been with all my children when they harvested their first, and there is no joy like the excitement in my voice as I congratulated my youngest boy.
We walked through the gutless method of cleaning, and when we were done dumped the entrails out for a quick biology lesson, and so he could see what heart and lungs look like. We found a bullet hole dead center in the heart, and figured the shot doesn't get much better than that. I put most of the deer in my pack, giving him both front shoulders as a reward for his hard work, and to give me a little less weight. About half way up the hill, he was dragging, so I took one shoulder away, and we continued our trek back to the truck. Logan couldn't wait till we got cell service to send his mom a picture, and we had just enough battery life in my phone to send it, and hope she received it. I can't wait till december, when he has an extra doe tag in the winter range, it's going to be fun
Again, I managed to get enough work done in 4 days to qualify for a day off, and it was opening day of general rifle season, We snuck out of the house trying to make sure the dog didn't see us wearing camo, and since that didn't work, we just left my wife with him, and his dissapointment. Little debbies and coffee in hand, we drove to our location, and hoofed it down the road, watching all the atv's in a hurry to get farther than we could, faster. I jumped off the road and over a ridge, giving us a sidehill to watch the sun come up on, and keeping ranges reasonable, a nice log to use as a chair and gunrest, the kid had it made.
The first hour we saw 2 does about 500 yards away, and I could see the dissapointment in my son, not many deer, and nothing that was even moving around till I heard the unmistakable sound of deer bouncing, just couldn't see them so I told Logan to settle into his chair, and be ready. After about 5 minutes, we finally found the deer we had heard, on the other side of the draw, but about 350 yards away, farther than I was comfortable with him shooting. We watched the deer for about 5 minutes through binoculars, and he started getting his first dose of buck fever. The deer moved into the timber, and he was sure they were gone forever, I could hear the disapointment in his voice as he told me he was happy he had at least seen deer, about 3 seconds after he said that, he said he saw deer in the bottom of the draw, and they were headed our way. I finally figoured out where he saw the deer, and got him set up on his logs, waiting till the deer moved into a clearing, It looked like we had a row of does headed in front of us, so I told him the second one looked biggest, when he had a chance he could pull the trigger. The doe stopped on her mark and a shot rang out. I saw her buck, and jump behind a tree, but never saw her come out. The rest of the group bounded up the hill, and Logan was in tears, saying he couldn't believe he missed her. I said I was sure the shot was fair, and in any case, once you pull the trigger, you've got to go look at the shot, make sure you hadn't drawn blood. We marked the location on the opposite slope, and headed down the hill, me fairly confident we would find a deer, and my son sure we were just going to look at dirt.
When we crossed the bottom of the draw, my son looked to the left and right, and said, "there's my deer, RIGHT THERE". The tears were still there, but they were tears of joy as he walked up to his first big game animal. HIs shot was perfect, right behind the shoulder, and 1/4 of the way up the crease. I've been with all my children when they harvested their first, and there is no joy like the excitement in my voice as I congratulated my youngest boy.
We walked through the gutless method of cleaning, and when we were done dumped the entrails out for a quick biology lesson, and so he could see what heart and lungs look like. We found a bullet hole dead center in the heart, and figured the shot doesn't get much better than that. I put most of the deer in my pack, giving him both front shoulders as a reward for his hard work, and to give me a little less weight. About half way up the hill, he was dragging, so I took one shoulder away, and we continued our trek back to the truck. Logan couldn't wait till we got cell service to send his mom a picture, and we had just enough battery life in my phone to send it, and hope she received it. I can't wait till december, when he has an extra doe tag in the winter range, it's going to be fun
