Wanted to get this info posted up last night, but that little game in the Super Dome had me up waayyy past my bedtime...I like good bedtime stories like dat!!....
Took my boys out to the lease (Rocksprings area) this weekend for their second-ever official deer hunt. Doesn't matter if hunting is involved or not, the boys love being out there shooting sling shots and exercising their growing sense of place in this world so the whole weekend was going to be epic regardless of the hunting.
On Saturday morning we hunted resulting in a good dose of "patience" training. This came about as we watched several doe walk around, but only offering mere seconds of shot opportunity due to brush obstructions, facing the wrong direction, or other deer either immediately in front or in back of the intended target. The time window was too small for the guy behind the trigger, so it became a long waiting game and ultimately a plea to go back to the camp to play with the other little fellas...
On Sunday morning we arrived early to the feeder and in complete darkness started spreading out corn. I say complete darkness, because my LED headlamp offered precious little help, and yes there is an Academy trip on the books as we speak. Well, as we started away from the feeder about I heard something behind me and looked to see two glowing eyes near the feeder looking back at me not 30' away! Apparently he was hungry and was looking to jump on the corn we had just put out a minute back!! Wow, this is wild. We kept our cool and finished spreading out everything we had and settled into the blind. The boys had worked up a sweat climbing up/down the hill and following me around so settling in involved discarding the insulated coveralls (it was mid 30s temp), getting snacks, and arranging the backpacks for maximum comfort. About this time, it was getting lighter in the east so I picked up the binos and spotted at least 9 deer feeding. Fifteen or so minutes later I could see that most were smallish 6 and 8pt bucks with a possible doe or two mixed in. A bit later a much bigger buck showed up and both boys jumped to the window to see. The events get kinda fuzzy from here, but we watched "big boy" for at least 30min before making a "shoot" decision. We then arranged my 11 yr old on my lap since the tri-chair was too short. It then became a wait until a clean shot was available. With the abandoned coveralls, the apparent air temp oddly (
) went through a dramatic decrease and the boys started getting a little cold. It reached a point where the shooter was shaking like a leaf on Galveston the afternoon before Ike. I commented to his younger brother that we should each give him a glass of milk so we could have milkshakes for breakfast and there was a quick laugh. When asked if he was cold he replied, "yeah, and nervous too!" Just as on Saturday morning, the shot window seemed like it took forever to fall into place and after 15min of waiting I was getting concerned at some point "big boy" would have his fill and move on. A few minutes later my fear was beginning to materialize as we watched him meander away from his feeding spot towards the area behind the feeder. It was becoming more walking, less nibbling, and progressively moving further away. My son kept the crosshairs on him and when there was brief pause in step, with clear foreground and background, I whispered "take him when you're ready" to re-affirm that he was going to be the one making the decision when to shoot. I felt an inhale, heard the safety click off, the trigger squeezed, and bang it went. Obviously, the crack caused the entire crowd to scatter and for a moment my son thought he may have missed. In my mind, while "big boy" ran off and into the brush, he seemed quite disturbed in doing so. After a minute or so of contemplating the events, we climbed down and headed for the supposed impact area ~110yds away where we found fresh blood confirming the hit, and a dramatically increased sense of anticipation. A couple of minutes of tracking and the youngest calls out "there he is under the trees.." Sure enough we had him down. It is indescribable how much pride was had by all, truly, a most memorable moment....Though the pics don't show so well, the taxidermist measured our typical 10 (with 1" point near base) as 145" (inside spread 19.25") and estimated 170lbs.... I'm still amazed at the whole event.
SR!
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