My daughter asked me to take here deer hunting this weekend, since this is the last year she is eligible for the youth hunt.
Her schedule is more than a little packed, with student council, travel softball, powderpuff football, drama club, 4.0gpa etc etc.
So when she asked me to take her hunting, I couldn't very well turn her down
.
Anyway, she informed me that she only had until 10am, since she had to help with the homecoming float!
We got up at 5am, ate a bagel and drove over to a friends place. He only has 40 acres, but it's a pretty good 40, with some hardwoods and a field that is planted in corn. Both of my kids have taken does over there and we usually see a few does when we are out.
After about 15 minutes of 'sneaking' through a cornfield that was wet with dew. We sat down 20 yards into the hardwoods to wait for daylight.
Good old dad had forgotten the Mosquito repellent, so over the next 3 hours, we were both having a good old fashion blood letting!
I heard some turkeys come off their roost deeper in the hardwoods just after daylight and 2 hens walked about 30yds behind us as the acorns fell.
While I was pre-occupied trying to keep the mosquitos at bay, Katy whispered that a big red fox was sneaking through the woods right on the turkey's path.
I couldn't see the fox or the turkey's, but I could see my daughter. She had let her hair down, as a defense against the mosquitos. She was pretty happy watching the fox and the turkeys. I was pretty happy too!
About 9am, she spotted a little buck moving out of some thick brush towards the cornfield. He got almost to the corn and evidently smelled our trail. He stopped and turned around. Katy got ready with the muzzleloader and as he started walking on his backtrail, I whistled quietly and he stopped broadside about 70 yards away. The 50 caliber TC Omega fired and all I could see was smoke. I didn't see the buck run, nor did I hear it crashing through the woods. Katy is a pretty good shot, so I figured the buck was laying down there. But Katy has been focusing on her softball pitching so much the last couple years, that she hasn't been able to do much shooting. She looked at me and said "I think I jerked the trigger!"
She had, it was a clean miss. I could see where the buck was standing and where he ran back into the woods at the shot.
We sat around for another hour and that little buck came out again, but we couldn't get a shot. A little doe (yearling) came out too, and Katy decided to pass on a shot.
We walked back through the corn to the pickup without filling her tag. And I was in pretty good spirits. Kate was pretty pleased with the morning too, although she told me she wished she wouldn't have jerked the trigger.
Just thought I'd share one of the best hunting days I've had in a few years with you guys.
Later,
AJ
Re: Youth hunt this morning with my daughter.
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