. . . the Spike.
Not much of a Story. Decided to go hunting around 2pm. Decided to invide a 12yo I know who has been wanting to get into hunting. Neither of his parents activly hunt but the father use to. So I picked him up around 3:45pm and we headed out. I had found a nice little spot the evening before and from the tracks and sign looked to hold a good number of deer. So I decided to head there first thing. I've got a Multi Season Tag and a Doe tag for this area.
On our way up we stopped every so often so I could show him tracks, trails, mushrooms, and anything else his 12 yo mind (who has never really spend much time in the woods)thought required a closer look or a good poke with a stick.
We were in about 7 miles and I had just gone past a spur road by about 10 yards or so and I saw the flash of an ass to the left of a deer dropping down over the edge of the road. I stopped the truck and got out and looked over the edge to see if I could see it. Didn't see it but about 30 yards down there was a somewhat over grown spur road. At first I was just going to keep moving on to the spot I wanted to hunt but at the last minute decided to back up and drive down the spur road. I probably had no buisness taking my truck down this road. It was pretty narrow but other vehicals had been using it.
After about a 1/4 mile there was the deer fast walking down the road about 40 yards ahead and then off the side of the road. I got out of the truck and made some bleet soulds with my mouth to stop the deer because I didn't want it to disapear into the brush again. The deer stopped about 70 yards down the hill. Took a little brush dodging before I could get a shot. Put the crosshairs on his shoulder and I don't think the deer even knew what hit him. He did a bit of a flip and dropped in his tracks. He was dead by the time I walked down to him.
When I first offered at the begining of the season to take this kid hunting the parents were a little concerned with how he would handle watching a large animal like this die and than the whole skinning and gutting process. The kid also expressed concerns about feeling sad about the thought of killing a large animal.
Needless to say I don't think they have to worry about that anymore. He still said it was sad but he was excited and jumped right in with any help I needed. Holding legs, holding open the rib cage, etc. Of course one of the highlight for him was me cutting out the butt hole and skinning out the nuts.
I had to confirm several time that NO he couldn't take them home to show his older sister. He finnaly settled on a contest to which of us could throw ours the farthest down the hill.
