Three Boys Hunting

My dad and I took #1, #2, and #3 sons, ages 6, 8, and 10, out to hunt this weekend. #3 took his first deer a few weeks ago so the older boys got first shot. My dad was going to sit in one of the ground blinds with #1 and #3 and I was going to sit in either the elevated blind with #2 if the wasps weren't too bad or in the other ground blind.

We pulled up to the elevated blind about 3:30pm to check on the wasp situation. #2 and I agreed that discretion was the better part of field of view so we decided to skip the elevated blind but I thought it would be a good idea to put the ladder up and unlock the door so we would have an easier time the next morning. I took the ladder off the truck and put it up to the blind, climbed the ladder, and unlocked the door. As I was climbing down I looked around and said "I think that's a deer over there."

I finished climbing down from the ladder and checked through the binos. Sure enough it was a nice buck. I took out the rifle that #1 uses, which was chamber empty and magazine loaded, and racked it. Then I got #1 out of the truck and said "This is your time."

He tried to shoot from kneeling but the grass and weeds were too high for him to see over. I took the rifle and he climbed into the bed of the truck and up onto the tool box. My dad threw a backpack up onto the roof of the truck as a rest and I handed him the rifle. My dad told me to turn off the truck so I reached in and turned the key. The doors were open so of course it started going "DING! DING! DING!" until I pulled the key. The buck was still there alternately looking at us and coming toward us. I climbed into the bed so I could watch through the binos.

The silly deer was walking towards us!! He stopped facing exactly at us and stood looking at us. I asked #1 if he could see him and he said "Yes. I'm lined up."

BOOM!!

The buck crumpled like a skyscraper that was imploding.

After some back slapping and hand shaking my dad and I walked down to confirm the buck was there and hadn't somehow slipped off through the high grass. The boy would have had tough going on foot because of the grass burrs. Sure enough the buck was right where we marked him down. We laser measured the buck at exactly 150 yards from where he fired. The buck had been facing directly at us and was looking slightly uphill. The bullet hit at the base of his throat. As close as I could tell he hit the exact center of the chest from the angle we were looking. The young man can shoot and facing a nice looking buck doesn't seem to bother him at all.

A nice looking buck.




Here is the big boy and his deer. That is his 5th deer. Not a bad record.


Here is the whole motley crew.

We loaded the deer onto the hitch hauler and I took the big boy and his deer back to the house to gut it and dropped my dad and the two younger boys off in the ground blind.

I finished gutting the buck and had just finished cleaning and oiling my knife and washing up when my dad called and said to come back because they had another deer. That was about 5:15pm. It was shaping up like a good day.

I pulled up to the blind about 15 minutes later and my dad told me that they now had two deer down because #3 shot another one. I'm glad I got back when I did or we wouldn't have been able to fit them all in the truck.

Here is #2 with his. He took his first, a 2x2 mule deer buck, last year. I wasn't there to see that one or this one. He shot both of them with his Grandpa. This one was about 75 yards away and walking when he shot it.

Here is #3 with his deer, which was also his second. It was about 50 yards away.

Here are the two little troublemakers together with their meat.

I was just about glad that they didn't want to go hunting again the next morning.

We've taken 5 deer this season and all have been whitetails. We have seen a few mule deer does and fawns. The only mule deer buck I saw was a little 2x2. He was with about 20 does and fawns. If he was old enough to be interested in such things he must have felt like a king.

We have enough meat for the year and then some. We may go after some turkey and pigs just for variety or we might take some more meat and see if we can't find some needy and worthy people to give them to.

We have been blessed with abundant game this year and are blessed to live in a place and time where we can take and use that game.

Good luck with your hunting this year.