Another great youth season!!!

[Limbshot]

Well he did it again!  My son, who has now been deer hunting a grand total of 5 days, killed his fourth deer ever, and did it with his best to date!  This was a pretty cool hunt because it is the first time my wife has ever been able to sit with either of the kids during a season.  This ended up being far from your typical sit in a stand a shoot a deer kind of hunt as well!!!
 
Let me start by saying that neither of them is particularly comfortable with exiting the woods in darkness.  They had been in a stand next to our small foodplot and it was getting a little dark so they made the decision to get down.  My son descended the ladder first and my wife was still in the stand when they heard the distinct sound of footsteps and in walks a nice buck to 15 yards and begins gorging itself in the plot.  He cannot climb back up because the blind would make too much noise, so he just stands there.  Jamie said soon the treestand was shaking, as he stood there on the ladder trembling with excitement.  They are whispering back and forth and freezing still when he picks his head up.  She slowly lowers the 30/30 down to him and he gets a handle on it without hitting the metal ladder.  He tries to wrap an arm around the brace of the ladder and get the gun in his shoulder but he can’t get good enough balance.  He then slowly works his way down the ladder a wrung at a time, only moving when the deer has his head down, and stopping when he pics it up.  One wrung from the ground and another deer starts coming in straight down wind and smells them and snorts.  The buck whips his head up and stares at the other deer.  The new arrival bounds off a few yards and the buck turns around and walks out of the plot and behind some brush and stops.  Brendan is now on terra firma, but cannot shoot through the brush.  He has a big tree between him and the buck’s head so he starts walking forward.  Anytime the buck would look his direction Jamie would whisper to stop and he’d freeze.  Then when he looked over towards the other deer, he would advance and when he stepped on leaves, Jamie would turn softly bleat and the buck would look away again.  He finally makes it ten yards to the tree and the buck takes a few steps forward and clears the brush as Brendan lifted the gun into position and Jamie is up there thinking “there is no way this is gonna happen!!!”  He gets the gun settled and delivers and fantastic shot!!!  The deer whipped around and ran about 50 yards before they heard him crash.  We all met up in the driveway as my Dad and brother and the search was on.  Short tracking job, and the rest is history.  The shot was right on the money perfectly behind the should and completely blew up both lungs.  The cool thing is, we are extremely familiar with this deer.  I encountered him 3 times during firearm season last year and passed on him as a little seven.  Then this year we have roughly 50-75 pictures of him from each of our 5 well spread out cameras!  Anyway, another great success during the youth season.  My daughter wasn’t quite as fortunate.  We encountered a couple of deer, one of which was a decent little buck, but we just couldn’t get it together for a shot.  She will be trying it again though!!!
 

[RB]

LS, congrats to Brendan. That is one fine buck for any hunter. great story too. Looks like a good youth season for both our places.

[Limbshot]

Definitely! Love seeing the youth success! Wish like heck my daughter could have sent a bullet through one of the deer we saw Sunday, but we'll get her another chance. She's hunting with me again this weekend.

[RB]

Good luck to both of you and be safe.

[Limbshot]

Thanks RB, honestly couldn't care less if I get a shot or not. I'm gonna do all I can to have her knock one down!

[RB]

Thanks RB, honestly couldn't care less if I get a shot or not. I'm gonna do all I can to have her knock one down!

LS thats the way to do it

[Limbshot]

Yeah, she was incredible this past weekend. We sat a stand for 16 hours this weekend and she and I saw a total of 3 deer. She never once complained about being bored or cold or anything. She was just amazing and deserved a deer more than a lot of adults I know!!! Hoping we can make it happen this weekend. We did get to watch a little Bibcat attempt squirrel hunting Saturday morning, which she thought was pretty cool. He failed miserably in his efforts, but it was still amusing.

[Warmouth]

Congrats LS, great job setting the kid up.

[SAMCRO]

Good show.