Elkgunner
New member
Trophy hunting is all about the memories, and hunting with your kids definitely produces some amazing memories.
I have been fortunate enough to take my kids hunting with me, on week long river trips, to Alaska, and, for the Oldest, even to Africa. I am not sure what they will remember when they are oldest, but I hope it is nights spent looking at the Southern Cross in the African sky, playing on a beach on the Salmon River in the Frank Church Wilderness Area, or even chasing Whitetails with their Dad. As long as their memories are Outside, I will feel successful in raising the kids.
We had grand plans to leave right after school on Friday to go chase Whitetails up North. But, somehow, right after school became 3 hours later as we loaded the PU with 2 of everything for 3 of us. We pointed the PU north and started driving. Friday night lights were on as we rolled thru 4 small towns that had the High School football fields lit up. Each town smaller than the previous town, each crowd bigger than the previous crowd.
The Oldest decided the back seat offered better sleeping opportunity so the Youngest was designated Chief Talker to keep me awake on the drive. We listened to the first half of the BSU vs. Hawaii game and then lost radio reception. So, instead of putting in the Kid Rock CD and having to skip most of the songs, we just talked for a couple of hours. Roadtrips are great for talking about life.
We got to my Aunt and Uncle's cabin about 10pm local time. A long drive, but one I have made plenty of times, and the Cabin (house, but is a handbuilt log cabin) is always comfortable, warm, and familiar with my Aunt and Uncle there. My Uncle has been battling prostate cancer for about 8 or 9 years and one of the things that was important was for him to finish the log cabin my Aunt had always dreamed about. The cabin is done and my Uncle is hanging in the best he can. He has a 4-5 hour drive to the Veterans Hospital for treatments and Doctor's appointments so the burden of living back in the Clearwater country is a bit more than he should have, but the benefit of living in that country with big skies, big forests, and big rivers is probably as good of treatment as he can have.
We unloaded as much as we could from the PU and all found places to sleep. Sunrise comes early in that part of the Pacific Time Zone. The first day's plan was for my Oldest to hunt and the Youngest to stay back at the cabin sleeping and hanging out with my Aunt and Uncle.
My Oldest has been deer hunting for 4 years now, getting a mule deer each year, plus a few animals in Africa when she first started hunting. She is a busy kid and we always have to sort thru her schedule to identify the 1 or 2 days she can hunt each Fall. I am a firm advocate of kids being busy.
She is a very good shot, all of her deer have been single shot kills. No sense spending a summer putting holes in paper when you can spend a summer like this
Wakeboarding.........
Or, catching a wave and Surfing, Idaho-style.....
We loaded up and headed out to the area where I have taken a number of deer, including my biggest Whitetail to date. The Locals are all convinced the Wolves have ate all the deer and Elk around this area, but, I still like to hunt up there and have confidence. We parked the rig at the border of private property and National Forest land and started hiking on the Forest land. We hiked in about a mile to a ridge in the dark to sit and watch. I knew we were about 3 weeks early, but her schedule sort of forces the only time we could hunt.
Due to a quirk on the Mountain to the east, the sun doesn't come up and warm the place we were sitting. It kind of just moves along the ridge, just about to pop up for about an hour. Lots of daylight, but not much heat. We sat for 3 hours without seeing anything. It was cold, so we got up and hiked back to the truck, dropped all the extra clothes for staying warm and then moved about a half mile and started looking at another area. It wasn't long before two does walked out in front of us. My Oldest had a good shot on the second one and took it. The .243 was accurate for her taking her first off-hand shot. The deer went down, got back up, ran on 3 legs about 20 more yards and crashed into a tree, dead. The 95gr Partition had entered the near shoulder, gone thru the heart and exited the back shoulder.
We drug the deer out to where we could get the PU and loaded the deer. Drove back to my Uncle's and found my Youngest who had pretty much slept and then got up and learned to play pool with my Aunt. I told her to get ready after lunch and skinning the first deer it would be her turn to go hunt.
My Youngest has a bit of a mixed history of hunting. She seems excited to hunt up until the point the trigger needs pulled, then there seems to be a bit of hesitation. She got her deer last year but wouldn't hunt anything else. We went hunting this year, the previous Wednesday and saw 150 mule deer including bucks at 75 yards, but she never felt comfortable with a shot. Trying to get her a Whitetail would be much more difficult, but it was worth the chance. She had spent the morning eyeing some "feral" bunnies in my Aunt's front yard. My Uncle had encouraged her to shoot one for dinner, and my Youngest wanted to. So, we got out the .22 and she went bunny hunting.... This one was a bit bigger (means older and tougher) than we expected, but she had fun and my Aunt made it for dinner that night.
We then skinned the bunny and headed out to deer hunt for the evening in a driving rainstorm. We went to a different area than where we hunted in the morning. We saw nothing for the first hour, but, finally the rain quit and we were able to glass. I was glassing a far hill side for some spots that looked like Elk when suddenly a couple of Whitetails were right below us at 50 yards. I encouraged her to shoot, but she couldn't get the gun ready and she was trying to tell me I should shoot one. I had no intention of filling my tag until both my kids had filled their's, unless something with massive headgear was located, then it would be "every man for themselves".
The two Whiteys snuck into the timber and out of sight. We scrambled around below them and actually cut them off. They weren't sure what we were doing, but my Youngest was again not able to get off a shot before they moved on thru the thick lodgepole timber.
On the way back to the PU, just at dark, we bumped two more deer, seeing only the white triangle running at full speed. We had seen deer and she was happy.
Dinner was Fried Chicken and Fried Rabbit. I sometimes forget how amazingly good "real" fried chicken is when cooked by a Grandma/Aunt. With real milk gravy and homemade biscuits, REAL butter and jam.....
The next morning, my Youngest and I returned back to the area where my Oldest had killed her deer the day before. We kicked about 5 ravens off the gut pile as we went past. Not much farther we found two more does, but, again, no shot. We turned around and headed back and found yet another deer that quickly stepped behind 5000 lodgepole pines and was not to be seen.
We were seeing the deer, but the encounters were a bit too close and the deer a bit too spooky. My Youngest just seemed to need a bit more time for the shot than the Whitetails in the timber would allow. Finally, we moved through and old clear cut and noticed a couple of deer on the bottom, along the old growth. I went thru the routine telling my daughter to shoot, she was getting the gun ready, the closer deer looked up at us and I we were busted. But, my Youngest kept working to get her shot ready, and, to my surprise, I heard a BANG! and then a bunch of bells ringing in my right ear. I had gotten used to her NOT shooting, that when she finally shot I had neglected to cover my ears.
The deer dropped immediately in its' tracks, 75 yards away. My Youngest was excited, she gave me her gun and went running down to see her deer. A nice yearling doe and a happy hunter.
The Biologist at the Check Station aged both of them at "yearlings", so, despite the Local's claims that the Wolves are eating the deer up in the Clearwater, the reproduction rates would evidence otherwise.
A great hunt and a great time spent with my daughters and my Aunt and Uncle. I have to spend all day tomorrow cutting and wrapping the meat, but the smiles on my kids are worth the time, every time.
I have been fortunate enough to take my kids hunting with me, on week long river trips, to Alaska, and, for the Oldest, even to Africa. I am not sure what they will remember when they are oldest, but I hope it is nights spent looking at the Southern Cross in the African sky, playing on a beach on the Salmon River in the Frank Church Wilderness Area, or even chasing Whitetails with their Dad. As long as their memories are Outside, I will feel successful in raising the kids.
We had grand plans to leave right after school on Friday to go chase Whitetails up North. But, somehow, right after school became 3 hours later as we loaded the PU with 2 of everything for 3 of us. We pointed the PU north and started driving. Friday night lights were on as we rolled thru 4 small towns that had the High School football fields lit up. Each town smaller than the previous town, each crowd bigger than the previous crowd.
The Oldest decided the back seat offered better sleeping opportunity so the Youngest was designated Chief Talker to keep me awake on the drive. We listened to the first half of the BSU vs. Hawaii game and then lost radio reception. So, instead of putting in the Kid Rock CD and having to skip most of the songs, we just talked for a couple of hours. Roadtrips are great for talking about life.
We got to my Aunt and Uncle's cabin about 10pm local time. A long drive, but one I have made plenty of times, and the Cabin (house, but is a handbuilt log cabin) is always comfortable, warm, and familiar with my Aunt and Uncle there. My Uncle has been battling prostate cancer for about 8 or 9 years and one of the things that was important was for him to finish the log cabin my Aunt had always dreamed about. The cabin is done and my Uncle is hanging in the best he can. He has a 4-5 hour drive to the Veterans Hospital for treatments and Doctor's appointments so the burden of living back in the Clearwater country is a bit more than he should have, but the benefit of living in that country with big skies, big forests, and big rivers is probably as good of treatment as he can have.
We unloaded as much as we could from the PU and all found places to sleep. Sunrise comes early in that part of the Pacific Time Zone. The first day's plan was for my Oldest to hunt and the Youngest to stay back at the cabin sleeping and hanging out with my Aunt and Uncle.
My Oldest has been deer hunting for 4 years now, getting a mule deer each year, plus a few animals in Africa when she first started hunting. She is a busy kid and we always have to sort thru her schedule to identify the 1 or 2 days she can hunt each Fall. I am a firm advocate of kids being busy.
She is a very good shot, all of her deer have been single shot kills. No sense spending a summer putting holes in paper when you can spend a summer like this
Wakeboarding.........
Or, catching a wave and Surfing, Idaho-style.....
We loaded up and headed out to the area where I have taken a number of deer, including my biggest Whitetail to date. The Locals are all convinced the Wolves have ate all the deer and Elk around this area, but, I still like to hunt up there and have confidence. We parked the rig at the border of private property and National Forest land and started hiking on the Forest land. We hiked in about a mile to a ridge in the dark to sit and watch. I knew we were about 3 weeks early, but her schedule sort of forces the only time we could hunt.
Due to a quirk on the Mountain to the east, the sun doesn't come up and warm the place we were sitting. It kind of just moves along the ridge, just about to pop up for about an hour. Lots of daylight, but not much heat. We sat for 3 hours without seeing anything. It was cold, so we got up and hiked back to the truck, dropped all the extra clothes for staying warm and then moved about a half mile and started looking at another area. It wasn't long before two does walked out in front of us. My Oldest had a good shot on the second one and took it. The .243 was accurate for her taking her first off-hand shot. The deer went down, got back up, ran on 3 legs about 20 more yards and crashed into a tree, dead. The 95gr Partition had entered the near shoulder, gone thru the heart and exited the back shoulder.
We drug the deer out to where we could get the PU and loaded the deer. Drove back to my Uncle's and found my Youngest who had pretty much slept and then got up and learned to play pool with my Aunt. I told her to get ready after lunch and skinning the first deer it would be her turn to go hunt.
My Youngest has a bit of a mixed history of hunting. She seems excited to hunt up until the point the trigger needs pulled, then there seems to be a bit of hesitation. She got her deer last year but wouldn't hunt anything else. We went hunting this year, the previous Wednesday and saw 150 mule deer including bucks at 75 yards, but she never felt comfortable with a shot. Trying to get her a Whitetail would be much more difficult, but it was worth the chance. She had spent the morning eyeing some "feral" bunnies in my Aunt's front yard. My Uncle had encouraged her to shoot one for dinner, and my Youngest wanted to. So, we got out the .22 and she went bunny hunting.... This one was a bit bigger (means older and tougher) than we expected, but she had fun and my Aunt made it for dinner that night.
We then skinned the bunny and headed out to deer hunt for the evening in a driving rainstorm. We went to a different area than where we hunted in the morning. We saw nothing for the first hour, but, finally the rain quit and we were able to glass. I was glassing a far hill side for some spots that looked like Elk when suddenly a couple of Whitetails were right below us at 50 yards. I encouraged her to shoot, but she couldn't get the gun ready and she was trying to tell me I should shoot one. I had no intention of filling my tag until both my kids had filled their's, unless something with massive headgear was located, then it would be "every man for themselves".
The two Whiteys snuck into the timber and out of sight. We scrambled around below them and actually cut them off. They weren't sure what we were doing, but my Youngest was again not able to get off a shot before they moved on thru the thick lodgepole timber.
On the way back to the PU, just at dark, we bumped two more deer, seeing only the white triangle running at full speed. We had seen deer and she was happy.
Dinner was Fried Chicken and Fried Rabbit. I sometimes forget how amazingly good "real" fried chicken is when cooked by a Grandma/Aunt. With real milk gravy and homemade biscuits, REAL butter and jam.....
The next morning, my Youngest and I returned back to the area where my Oldest had killed her deer the day before. We kicked about 5 ravens off the gut pile as we went past. Not much farther we found two more does, but, again, no shot. We turned around and headed back and found yet another deer that quickly stepped behind 5000 lodgepole pines and was not to be seen.
We were seeing the deer, but the encounters were a bit too close and the deer a bit too spooky. My Youngest just seemed to need a bit more time for the shot than the Whitetails in the timber would allow. Finally, we moved through and old clear cut and noticed a couple of deer on the bottom, along the old growth. I went thru the routine telling my daughter to shoot, she was getting the gun ready, the closer deer looked up at us and I we were busted. But, my Youngest kept working to get her shot ready, and, to my surprise, I heard a BANG! and then a bunch of bells ringing in my right ear. I had gotten used to her NOT shooting, that when she finally shot I had neglected to cover my ears.
The deer dropped immediately in its' tracks, 75 yards away. My Youngest was excited, she gave me her gun and went running down to see her deer. A nice yearling doe and a happy hunter.
The Biologist at the Check Station aged both of them at "yearlings", so, despite the Local's claims that the Wolves are eating the deer up in the Clearwater, the reproduction rates would evidence otherwise.
A great hunt and a great time spent with my daughters and my Aunt and Uncle. I have to spend all day tomorrow cutting and wrapping the meat, but the smiles on my kids are worth the time, every time.
