So I'll start this off by saying my youngest son finally got his first deer.
This is his third year hunting. Fourth if you include his first year with the hunter deferral. Because of sports, he has never really been able to get out hunting much. This year, at the ripe old age of 14, he decided he was not going to play football. He wanted to concentrate on his grades more.
His first year hunting he passed on a nice little basket rack three point. He could see it but not well enough for a good shot. Pretty good decision making for a ten year I thought. Year two brought no opportunities. Year three he finally got to pull the trigger on a very small spike. Everything went wrong. He normally shoots left handed but could not get a shot. He tried shooting right handed and pulled the rifle the same time he pulled the trigger. This year we spent a lot of time at the range and got him all dialed in again. Yesterday morning we were in the blind and ready to go by 5:45. By 6:15 we could see the silhouettes of dear moving below us. At 6:25 we had a good buck below us. Five minutes before legal shooting light he left. I was watching the direction he went and spotted a small forked horn up on the ridge to our right. I would only get random glimpses of him and Nick could not get a shot. I looked down below us again and there was a doe at 60yards. I pointed her out to Nick and we waited. Two more came out and I told him to take the biggest one if he was ready. He steadied his .243 on the tripod and let her rip. Direct hit. She ran about forty yards and piled up. I turned back to look at Nick and congratulate him on a job well done. He had tears in his eyes and he was shaking like a leaf. I asked if he was ok and he said he was so happy he felt like crying. I said well cry then. He gave me a big hug and let a couple tears go. I will remember this day forever and I hope he does too.
DISCLAIMER: I am typing this on my phone sitting in the hot tub nursing a bad back from dragging, gutting and skinning his deer. Not sure what I did but I could barely get out of bed this morning and had to skip my morning hunt. I apologize for any spelling errors. I will come back later and clean them up.
