Well, I posted this on 24-hr, but need to add a bit for this group, as the whole stroy is a bit tougher.
A few weeks ago, my dad hit his head while playing wiht my 2 boys, Gunnar (7) and Steyr (5). After a few trips to the hospital, we are looking down the face of cervical spine surgery, followed by Neuro Surgery for a tumor found in his brain during the CT-scan of his head after the injury, yet totally unrelated to the injury. We are in for a long winter. Dad told the Doc that this would all have to wait until after hunting season! Gotta love it, at 65 he is still hard-core!
So, I am thinking I need to get my kids out hunting with Grandpa ASAP.
Long story shorter, Dad and I took my 7-year old son, Gunnar, out hunting for Lopes on the season opener, staying in Dad's camper. The weather was a bit cool (20's) and the lopes stayed mostly out of site. We hunted pretty hard opening day, with a few passes on smaller bucks early.
This was a tough trip. We looked longer for what we saw, and saw fewer animals overall than previous years, and we heard no other shooting all day. I think the cold had kept most people home. A little snow makes spotting antelope a lot tougher! Late in the morning Dad had a long-shot that was complicated with a stiff cross wind and light bullets (.243) that yielded no results (miss). Late in the afternoon on Sunday, Dad spotted this buck headed up a draw with a few does. We put the move on them, and was able to just barely got the shot before they disappeared around the next ridge, 278 yards away, shooting at his call of “good buck, good buck” shispered over my shoulder.
Gunnar was along on his first hunting trip for big game, and was great. He kept up, kept quiet, and kept warm – not easy in 10-20 degrees and wind! He was always wanting to go farther, see more, and help out. The miles we put on did nto even slow him down, but he did sleep well, other than falling out of bed in at 3 AM! He even picked up a small plastic scope cap my dad dropped in some rocks drigng mystalk, and produced it when Dad said... "uh.. has anyone seen a scope cap?" Gunnar says, "I picked this up in those ricks back there, is this it?" Good eyes on the little guy!
This buck was a great result of a really memorable trip. He is pretty, and 14 inches on the long side.
(I hope this image thing works out)
I also picked up a nice big 7-point bull elk shed. It is pretty white, but a big one at over 11 lbs.
Overall, it was a great trip that I will never forget.
I can't wait until he can carry a rifle of his own!
Shortside
