With the vehicle packed with snacks drinks, Barbie dolls, a long range rig and a plethora of other crazy gear my two oldest daughters Rimingtyn age 7 and Kamdyn age 5 and I headed for South East Kansas to our family farm for our now annual deer hunt. As everyone knows it's really difficult to harvest a good deer every year. Bring the kiddos along and that presents a whole new level of challenge and memory alike!
With plans to leave the Kansas City area at 10am we would have plenty of time to make the two hour drive, unload our gear, get settled and make it to the blind. Well work had other plans so we didn't get off until 1pm. With the girls just as gidee as could be I took a deep breathe and said to myself we can do this. As we headed down the highway my oldest daughter decided a bathroom break was in order not twenty minutes into our drive. I wanted to be frustrated but I just couldn't. How can a guy be frustrated I'm headed to do my favorite thing on earth with two of my favorite little buddies on earth. So we just stopped and scurried back to the vehicle as quick as possible to get back on the road. We rolled in to our destination at 3pm! I was wound tight as a all get out to check zero on my rifle so we could hunt. Well the girls were more enthralled with my fathers 4 wheeler than hunting, imagine that, so we took a quick ride and then loaded it up on the back of the truck. I elected to borrow my dad's rifle for the time being and leave mine behind as he had already checked zero to save some time. On our way to our hunting spot I bought the girls a coke and a couple of York peppermint patties. Yea it was a lot of sugar but hey mom was to around and we were there to have fun! Rolling into our spot at 5pm, we were trying to hustle and keep the candy wrapper noise at a minimum. We parked the truck, bailed out with pink camo and 7mm rounds en tow! As we came to the opening of the large hay meadow we were to hunt, I quickly spotted three deer that had beat us to the punch. Helping the little ones get their chairs, pop, candy and coloring books all set up some hearing protection was then installed for the anticipated roar of the ol' Remington 700 7mm rem mag. Soon there were three, then five, then about a dozen deer filtering out to feed with a few minutes of light left! I told Rimingtyn and Kamdyn to get ready! All eyes were on a huge doe at 425 yards. I propped my pack up and laid the gun over it and began settling in. Wait what is going on here a reached for the parallax knob, nothing!! I couldn't see a cotton picking thing. I remembered I had opened the bottle of coke for the girls only to find it had been generously shook and just flat exploded all over me. Guess what was propped up right beside me. Yip the gun. Sticky nasty coke all over the front objective. I wanted to check on the status of the doe so I asked for the binoculars from my oldest daughter. Raising them to my eyes I adjusted and readjusted trying to get rid of the burr?? I said what in the world to which Kamdyn replied, Rimingtyn licked them dad! I looked at rimi as she smiled with York peppermint chocolate all over her lips! She just said, I thought I would clean then for ya dad. Well you just never know with kids I just slouched with a slight feeling of defeat but also just rolling with laughter inside. Well maybe tomorrow I thought and we just headed back to the truck as the beautiful Kansas sun set in the distance. The next afternoon we set out to zero my rifle then bring our A game to these deer! This time I called on my cousin for a little help wrangling the two little buddies as well as wind calling and range finding! We quickly realized that something was wrong with the windage adjustment in my scope so my savage 30-06 was a no go. He generously offered his custom AR-15 topped off with a 6-24 vortex viper pst. We decided if we limited our range somewhat that the 75gr amax bullets would do the trick. Well by the time we got our circus to the show it was 5pm again! We set up in the same spot and felt more confident because we thought we had our act together a little better tonight. Just like before a few does came meandering out onto the meadow completely unaware of the deadly pink parade that lay wait! With the girls on point using THEIR new binoculars we purchased form Wal-Mart to avoid any futher chocolate damage. I was on the rifle and my cousin was calling ranges. Every time he could range them I couldn't see them through the grass. They worked their way into 100 yards and at last light I finally took a shot! Yea it was par for the course I whiffed bad. Hey the girls had a great time using their new binos and watching deer. Mission accomplished. I was determined to get our camp a deer though. By this time it was Saturday evening and we were going to have to leave Sunday evening to head home. It pours down rain all night Saturday night. I awoke to the pitter patter of rain on the roof at 5:30am Sunday morning. My cousins rifle wasn't available and it was just horrible outside. I thought a who cares I'm going anyway. I made a special request of my dad to watch the little ones for a bit because they weren't to keen on going out in the rain. I didn't blame them I thought to myself I'm the only person in Cherokee county Kansas going this morning. With my rig broke, and not wanting to subject a borrowed rifle to a torrential down pour I figured I would just use what I had. My 5.5" barreled stainless steel ruger super blackhawk chambered in 44 mag. This gun accompanies me on every hunting trip and every camping trip I go on. Parking the truck about a quarter mile away I silently slipped down the dirt road to the hay meadow we had been frequenting. With all the rain overnight the normal entry way was about knee high with water. I moved on down and found a shallow spot to cross. After jumping over a small creek I had to crawl over the barbed wire fence that was overgrown with honeysuckle. Traversing this as gracefully as possible I no more had set foot onto the meadow only to watch 15 or 20 white flags head in about four different directions as deer seemed to run everywhere. Well this was par for the course. I regrouped and decided to work my way up the north edge of the meadow to a large patch of cedars. After sloshing along in the spongy native Kansas grass two does jump the fence to the south about 150 yards out and head my way. Caught along the edge, in the open I found a small patch of grass to hunker down behind. Sitting on my right boot with my left knee up my leg immediately got soaked. As water also started pouring into my right boot I was praying this would pay of. The rain beat Down and the does closed the distance to fifty yards but decided the big blob trying to hide behind the tiny clump of grass wasn't right. After facing me head on in the epic "I've busted you" stare down they blew and bounded off. Continuing on I suddenly caught some movement over my shoulder. To my bewilderment three bucks had just entered the field. I thought here we go again I'm out in the open with no where to go. The only option I had was to sit Down up against a hay bale I happened to be standing in front of. I plopped down in the soggy mess filling my drawers with water. My heart began to thump as I quickly realized one of the bucks was a shooter. I slowly brought my right knee up toward my chest. Cold, shivering, wet and my heart just about to pound out of my chest I rested the barrel of the super black hawk on my knee. Peering through the pounding rain I could tell the last bucks size was considerably larger than the others. He lumbered forward stiff legged from the battles won and lost during the rut. He looked like a king who had conquered this domain with pure size and strength. As he moved closer walking in front of me completely oblivious to my presence at 73 yards I fought the emotions inside and the elements outside to hold the front blade and rear notch of the ruger single action revolver as still as possible. When he planted his front right leg in the rain drenched ground the 44 magnum barked. The buck lurched sideways and flung rooster tails of mud as he raced for the timber. I watched with anticipation. Right before he entered the timber his tail fell he as lunged into the cover. I thought did I miss?? He just ran 250 yards and didn't fall?? Waiting 45 minutes I endured a roller coaster of emotion replaying the shot in my mind. As I approached the last place I saw the buck a battle raged inside, on one side was the eager excitement of accomplishment, memories with my kids, and the future story to be shared. On the other side was the gut wrenching feeling of defeat and disappointment that we have all experienced. Moving a few steps closer I almost did not want to look, afraid of what I feared may be true. Then wait!!! An antler then two! Over the honeysuckle just inside the timber was the success, the accomplishment, the experience hunters have shared for thousands of years. As I approached the buck I was thankful. Thankful my kids were there to get coke on the scope of the rifle, thankful they licked the binoculars, thankful for the time with them, my dad and my cousin. I was thankful for that buck, he is sustenance for my family, vitality to my life and the root of a deep connection with my two young daughters. I love Long Range Hunting with a passion and always will but this has been an experience that has reminded me to not forget some if the root meaning behind why we do what we do.
With plans to leave the Kansas City area at 10am we would have plenty of time to make the two hour drive, unload our gear, get settled and make it to the blind. Well work had other plans so we didn't get off until 1pm. With the girls just as gidee as could be I took a deep breathe and said to myself we can do this. As we headed down the highway my oldest daughter decided a bathroom break was in order not twenty minutes into our drive. I wanted to be frustrated but I just couldn't. How can a guy be frustrated I'm headed to do my favorite thing on earth with two of my favorite little buddies on earth. So we just stopped and scurried back to the vehicle as quick as possible to get back on the road. We rolled in to our destination at 3pm! I was wound tight as a all get out to check zero on my rifle so we could hunt. Well the girls were more enthralled with my fathers 4 wheeler than hunting, imagine that, so we took a quick ride and then loaded it up on the back of the truck. I elected to borrow my dad's rifle for the time being and leave mine behind as he had already checked zero to save some time. On our way to our hunting spot I bought the girls a coke and a couple of York peppermint patties. Yea it was a lot of sugar but hey mom was to around and we were there to have fun! Rolling into our spot at 5pm, we were trying to hustle and keep the candy wrapper noise at a minimum. We parked the truck, bailed out with pink camo and 7mm rounds en tow! As we came to the opening of the large hay meadow we were to hunt, I quickly spotted three deer that had beat us to the punch. Helping the little ones get their chairs, pop, candy and coloring books all set up some hearing protection was then installed for the anticipated roar of the ol' Remington 700 7mm rem mag. Soon there were three, then five, then about a dozen deer filtering out to feed with a few minutes of light left! I told Rimingtyn and Kamdyn to get ready! All eyes were on a huge doe at 425 yards. I propped my pack up and laid the gun over it and began settling in. Wait what is going on here a reached for the parallax knob, nothing!! I couldn't see a cotton picking thing. I remembered I had opened the bottle of coke for the girls only to find it had been generously shook and just flat exploded all over me. Guess what was propped up right beside me. Yip the gun. Sticky nasty coke all over the front objective. I wanted to check on the status of the doe so I asked for the binoculars from my oldest daughter. Raising them to my eyes I adjusted and readjusted trying to get rid of the burr?? I said what in the world to which Kamdyn replied, Rimingtyn licked them dad! I looked at rimi as she smiled with York peppermint chocolate all over her lips! She just said, I thought I would clean then for ya dad. Well you just never know with kids I just slouched with a slight feeling of defeat but also just rolling with laughter inside. Well maybe tomorrow I thought and we just headed back to the truck as the beautiful Kansas sun set in the distance. The next afternoon we set out to zero my rifle then bring our A game to these deer! This time I called on my cousin for a little help wrangling the two little buddies as well as wind calling and range finding! We quickly realized that something was wrong with the windage adjustment in my scope so my savage 30-06 was a no go. He generously offered his custom AR-15 topped off with a 6-24 vortex viper pst. We decided if we limited our range somewhat that the 75gr amax bullets would do the trick. Well by the time we got our circus to the show it was 5pm again! We set up in the same spot and felt more confident because we thought we had our act together a little better tonight. Just like before a few does came meandering out onto the meadow completely unaware of the deadly pink parade that lay wait! With the girls on point using THEIR new binoculars we purchased form Wal-Mart to avoid any futher chocolate damage. I was on the rifle and my cousin was calling ranges. Every time he could range them I couldn't see them through the grass. They worked their way into 100 yards and at last light I finally took a shot! Yea it was par for the course I whiffed bad. Hey the girls had a great time using their new binos and watching deer. Mission accomplished. I was determined to get our camp a deer though. By this time it was Saturday evening and we were going to have to leave Sunday evening to head home. It pours down rain all night Saturday night. I awoke to the pitter patter of rain on the roof at 5:30am Sunday morning. My cousins rifle wasn't available and it was just horrible outside. I thought a who cares I'm going anyway. I made a special request of my dad to watch the little ones for a bit because they weren't to keen on going out in the rain. I didn't blame them I thought to myself I'm the only person in Cherokee county Kansas going this morning. With my rig broke, and not wanting to subject a borrowed rifle to a torrential down pour I figured I would just use what I had. My 5.5" barreled stainless steel ruger super blackhawk chambered in 44 mag. This gun accompanies me on every hunting trip and every camping trip I go on. Parking the truck about a quarter mile away I silently slipped down the dirt road to the hay meadow we had been frequenting. With all the rain overnight the normal entry way was about knee high with water. I moved on down and found a shallow spot to cross. After jumping over a small creek I had to crawl over the barbed wire fence that was overgrown with honeysuckle. Traversing this as gracefully as possible I no more had set foot onto the meadow only to watch 15 or 20 white flags head in about four different directions as deer seemed to run everywhere. Well this was par for the course. I regrouped and decided to work my way up the north edge of the meadow to a large patch of cedars. After sloshing along in the spongy native Kansas grass two does jump the fence to the south about 150 yards out and head my way. Caught along the edge, in the open I found a small patch of grass to hunker down behind. Sitting on my right boot with my left knee up my leg immediately got soaked. As water also started pouring into my right boot I was praying this would pay of. The rain beat Down and the does closed the distance to fifty yards but decided the big blob trying to hide behind the tiny clump of grass wasn't right. After facing me head on in the epic "I've busted you" stare down they blew and bounded off. Continuing on I suddenly caught some movement over my shoulder. To my bewilderment three bucks had just entered the field. I thought here we go again I'm out in the open with no where to go. The only option I had was to sit Down up against a hay bale I happened to be standing in front of. I plopped down in the soggy mess filling my drawers with water. My heart began to thump as I quickly realized one of the bucks was a shooter. I slowly brought my right knee up toward my chest. Cold, shivering, wet and my heart just about to pound out of my chest I rested the barrel of the super black hawk on my knee. Peering through the pounding rain I could tell the last bucks size was considerably larger than the others. He lumbered forward stiff legged from the battles won and lost during the rut. He looked like a king who had conquered this domain with pure size and strength. As he moved closer walking in front of me completely oblivious to my presence at 73 yards I fought the emotions inside and the elements outside to hold the front blade and rear notch of the ruger single action revolver as still as possible. When he planted his front right leg in the rain drenched ground the 44 magnum barked. The buck lurched sideways and flung rooster tails of mud as he raced for the timber. I watched with anticipation. Right before he entered the timber his tail fell he as lunged into the cover. I thought did I miss?? He just ran 250 yards and didn't fall?? Waiting 45 minutes I endured a roller coaster of emotion replaying the shot in my mind. As I approached the last place I saw the buck a battle raged inside, on one side was the eager excitement of accomplishment, memories with my kids, and the future story to be shared. On the other side was the gut wrenching feeling of defeat and disappointment that we have all experienced. Moving a few steps closer I almost did not want to look, afraid of what I feared may be true. Then wait!!! An antler then two! Over the honeysuckle just inside the timber was the success, the accomplishment, the experience hunters have shared for thousands of years. As I approached the buck I was thankful. Thankful my kids were there to get coke on the scope of the rifle, thankful they licked the binoculars, thankful for the time with them, my dad and my cousin. I was thankful for that buck, he is sustenance for my family, vitality to my life and the root of a deep connection with my two young daughters. I love Long Range Hunting with a passion and always will but this has been an experience that has reminded me to not forget some if the root meaning behind why we do what we do.
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