Last night was one of the most memorable moments of my life. I have an almost six year old son who adores hunting. He has been coming along with me on short sits and tracking adventures for the last few seasons, and has been soaking it all in. He loves to learn about the outdoors, identifying different animal tracks, and trying to figure out all of the different sounds we hear while in the woods together. He has been bugging me about going out to sit in the two man stand we have on the edge of a picked bean field for about two weeks and I was finally able to get some time off of work yesterday afternoon. We have had this on the schedule for the past 5 or 6 days so it has been all he has talked about. last Saturday I gave him his own set of horns and he has been practicing the "tickle" method all week. He practiced so much, that his mother was a little upset that I gave them to him. I told him that if he could get it down I would let him use his own horns when we went out last night to try and lure in a buck by simulating a sparring session. We got on stand at about 4:00 PM knowing that he wouldn't be able to sit much more than a couple of hours. As soon as we got on stand he wanted to go to town with his newly acquired skill. I told him we needed to let things settle for a bit. We sat for about an hour and I grunted a few times and told him that in 10 minutes he could try out his new set of antlers. He did and by god in came a little basket rack six pointer. It poked around in some heavy brush for a few minutes where I could see him but my boy couldn't pick him out. The look on his face when that deer stepped out of the brush and on to the trail that leads to our stand was something that I will never forget. I told him that we were going to pass on this one and immediately that look went away. We sat and watched him a few more seconds and then my son tugged on my pants and whispered in my ear. He said, "Dad, you told me that we are out of meat in the freezer and you always tell me that any deer with a bow is a trophy. Why wont you shoot him?" He was right, my freezer is (was) bone dry, and I have always preached to him the importance of hunting for the right reasons. I told him that this was his buck as it was the first one he had ever called in and it was his decision to take it or not. He thought for a few seconds and said that he would like to take it. He did an outstanding job of being still and quiet because during this entire conversation this deer was only about 30 yards from us. The wind was right and he continued right up the trail towards our stand. He stopped at 6 yards just slightly quartering away. I looked at my boy one more time and saw in his face that this up close encounter had sucked him in to the bowhunting life, just as it did me 25 years ago when I sat with my father in a tree just a few hundred yards up the ridge. I thanked the good Lord for giving me the chance to share this day with my son and center punched the little buck and watched him run about 40 yards and pile up. My son did not see him go down. He asked if we got him. I said it looked like a good shot but he would have to track it as this was his deer. we waited about a half hour and talked quietly about everything he remembered. I told him that it was safe to get down and look for it but he needed to remember that it is important to give the animal time to expire and if your not certain about your shot you should always back out and ask for help. We had plenty of daylight left for the tracking job so after we got out of our harnesses I told him it was time to find first blood. He found it no problem. He tracked this deer himself along the edge of the bean field, down into the finger of woods behind us and right up to the first deer he ever called in. I will never forget last night and judging by the look on my little mans face when he saw that deer, he's not forgetting this one either.
Thats great i killed my first deer let alone a buck last year with my rifle, still going strong with my bow though, just gotta wait for he right moment Success is when readiness meets opportunity
Great story! you got it, hunting for the right reasons. Its all about the experience and memories and you sure made that happen. Now its the little mans turn
That's a great story. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait till my 4 1/2 year old is ready to sit with me.
Awesome! Congrats man! I can't wait till my baby girl is old enough to go on a hunt with me. Great memories man. I'm sure you both will cherish that the rest of your lives.
Hopefully you got a picture of you with him. Put it in a frame. He is going to talk about this day for a long time. Congrats to you both.
That is so awesome. My son is 17, and he come with me most of the time. We are still waiting for him to get his first deer, but I have a good feeling about this year. I'm going to be more excited than he is when it happens.
