First deer with my boy

[ATH]

Over the past two years I successfully harvested deer with both of my girls on stand with me (8 and 6 at the time). This year the day to go out on stand on the good property I typically hunt was cold, and neither one wanted to go. My son is only 5 and he is not yet calm and patient enough to tolerate several cold hours on stand, so I want alone for what turned out to be an empty morning.

Yesterday I was ill and fatigued, not up to the 1.5 hour drive to sit out all morning. So once the morning frost dried off I decided to still hunt my home property, which is 15 acres I have been working to convert into deer habitat. I have planted 900 trees which are still very small and each year plant 1 acre of corn. All the surrounding land is corn and soybeans, so without a wooded area my grass-covered property is a mediocre draw until late season when the surrounding farmland has been chisel plowed under and my acre of standing corn is a deer magnet.

My girls did not want to walk with me but my son said yes so I loaded my 11-87 slug gun and we headed out. Shot angles are picky on the property, with other houses fairly close on one side and a freeway farther off on another. We walked down my gun range, with the breeze blowing our scent into the area the deer typically bed. For the first time this season there were deer in there, and two caught our scent and busted from perhaps 30 yards. But instead of doing what they normally do and running for the back corner and the exit points I cut in the fence (former elk farm, 8 ft fences), they ran straight towards the other houses and I could not shoot. Long story short they got jammed up in a corner and the biggest deer got over the 8ft fence but the other hesitated. I picked up my son and carried him to the firebreak cut edge where he could walk easy, and we stalked in on the remaining deer. Getting close I tried to cut around it and block it off but it made a run for it and ran around me. However I ran after it and cut it off, and it busted out into a mowed area not 20 yards away from me. I had a clear background and the open sights lined up and I cut a slug loose, dropping the deer.

My son was not right there but he got to see the whole thing. The process of taking a first deer with my son was priceless and he can't wait until he is old enough to join. Friends came out to shoot today and he was frustrated that he could not.

In a few weeks it is his 6th birthday, and there is a .22cal Savage Rascal in the garage waiting for him. As much as I enjoy hunting I cannot wait to have one of my kids behind the rifle while I watch.

 

[valleysnyper]

Very nice ! I. Got my son out early also. I had him in a double ladderstand at age 5

 

[prohuntersmind]

she is so pretty, nice one mate.

 

[flowhnun63]

Congratulations

 

[257WTBY]

a memory your son will never forget and the best thing we can ever do is pass the hunting heritage on to our children. Congrats

 

[otisdog]

Congratulations. I got to see my 9 year old grandson take his first deer this year. Great feeling. By the way he started on a BB gun then a savage rascal

 

[livetohunt]

Happy to see you passing on hunting to your kid!

Already have big plans for my little one and she's only 2 months!

Small kids always make animals look bigger!