Well everyone this year was really hit and miss. We got a few deer in camp this year but not as many as in the past. I guess 5 out of 8 hunters isn't bad but we've done better in the past. We do hunt private property so I felt a little bad but at least the younger kids got their deer this year and that was my main focus (sorry John I know you'll bag one next year). I don't know about other people in the area but if we we're in a 2 point or better area we would have all been home on opening weekend. We counted 21 different 2 point mulies and some of them were really big bodied animals. Next year should be a much better year. Lance got a 3 point (Thank God for eye guards huh Lance
). Ed got a nice 5 x 5 with eye guards and if you count the double eye guards it's a 6 x 6. (I know I'm going to catch hell from some of you since "eye guards don't count as points" but the rule books states different and that's how I'm counting them). Now we get to Tommy, he got a fabulous deer this year. His is the last picture and I'm sure you can all see how impressive it is. It's not going to make the cover of Mule Deer magazine but for the property we hunt its one great deer. We compared it to my oldest son's 1st deer on the same property and we believe it's a little bigger than Jacobs. Jacob's 1st deer scored a 134 7/8 and barley made the Youth record book. We all think Tommy will make it this year. My boys Jacob and Brandon filled their tags on the last ride back to camp before we left with a couple of whitetail does.
Now Tommy's story: Tom and Tommy were sitting in a field of about 3 feet of grass watching an area on the farm that's planted with winter wheat. About 6pm on Thursday evening the sun was just going down when about 10 - 12 does come running over the opposite hill right into the wheat to start feeding. Tom and Tommy had planned it perfect and had a great view from a hill about 200 - 300 yards away. While looking them over Tom noticed one of the deer was a shooter 3 x 3 but could never really get a clear shot with all the other deer wondering around. Right before legal shooting was coming up a really nice 4 x 4 came strolling over the hill and presented Tommy a shot. Tom ranged him at 296 yards when Tommy let his Savage 243 bark and hit him in the front shoulder (not bad for a 13 year old). The deer went down to his front knees and got back up and started to run towards a canyon on their right. Tom told Tommy he lost view of him since all the deer jumped and ran all at once. Tommy stayed cool and continued watching him the whole time, reloaded and shot him again on the run for a double lung shot. He collapsed no more than 20 yards later. By now it's starting to get dark and they had a tough time finding him in the 3 ft grass now. I happened to call Tommy at 7:30pm to ask how they did and all I could here was "I got a big one, I got a big one!" and Tom in the back ground saying "put the phone down we're trying to gut him!". Well by the time they got it back to camp and hung it was 10pm. They we're the only ones in camp since everyone else left and weren't coming back till Friday. Last night we all got together and butchered him and Tom is going to have him shoulder mounted. So even though Tom and I did not get deer this year it still turned out to be a great father and son hunt again.
