Well ladies and gentlemen make room for another hunter. I was honored by being asked to take a young man and his dad (a non-hunter) on their first hunt for deer. We have been communicating about this trip for almost a year. The family did not own a gun of any kind and I talked them into buying an air rifle to practice with and so he could learn some good safety skills. So why did I not take him out in person to practice, cause they live 280 miles away. Well he practiced, dad went to hunter safety classes with him, they barrowed a rifle and we set a date and time. They arrived late the night of the 14th and I got them up at 5:00am to head up on the mountain. We were joining a friend who had been elk hunting all week and should have a good idea were the deer should be. We met them and headed to a spot as the sun was just about to peak over the divide. We also had an 87 year old hunter whom had an elk tag. Humm does praying help, I think so because we had about 80+ elk run out in front of us and my friend, dad, grandson and me all got elk, so deer hunting was delayed while we cleaned, dragged and took care of our bounty. That evening we were able to see several deer but he could not get a shot off. Back to the original plan, so we were in position at first light the next morning. We have several young bucks to look over and I help him decide on one we can put a stock on. We creep; crawl and set-up were we can get a good clear shot at about 100 yards. After a few minutes he gets in range, well I am more nerves than he is and finally he lets it fly and guess what total miss. He just sit there not reloading or anything else. I finally get him to reload and the deer is looking around wonder were that noise came from. Well his second shot was true and he had a smile on his face. It was great he did not hesitate about getting his hands bloody and dad helped him drag it to the jeep. I killed my 37 elk the day before and it was a spike but the true joy of 2010 is hearing him plan for 2011.
