My son, Sam, connected Saturday morning on his first buck ever. We set up a ground blind overlooking a cut bean field that bordered a creek. There was a tree line to our left and a tree line to our left that descended into the bean field. Behind us was about 30 acres of crp ground. We were facing the bean field - specifically alonng the creek bottom where there was an active scrape line, but he also had good shots into either of the tree lines.
At daybreak the does started moving - mainly along the creek just as I had anticipated. He was tempted to shoot on a couple of occasions, but really wanted a buck. About thirty minutes into the hunt I decided to break out the antlers and gave them a rattle. I set them down and got out the binocs and started glassing the creek - nothing. I looked behind me through the side window (the back window was closed) and about 75 yards behind us there was a buck. He had come out of the crp and was surveying to see where the rattling had come from.
I calmly turned to Sam and said "Sam - there is a buck right behind us." As quietly as possible, I started unziping the back window. Each tooth in the zipper seemed like a .22 going off. I thought for sure we'd spook him. But he stayed in the same spot, staring intently down into the bottom. I opened up about an 8" gap in the window and told him to peek through to take a look. He peeks through just as the buck shakes his whole body like a dog that just came out of the water - it was shaking off the frost from the switchgrass in the crp field. The sun was just coming up and it was one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. The sun sparkled off the frost. Sam stared over at me and his eyes lit up.
I asked him if he could get the barrel of the rifle through the slit in the window. He nodded, but there was nothign to rest the rifle on. I had a improvides shooting rest set up for the shot out the front, but there was no way we were going to move it behind us without making a racket, so I told him to rest the rifle on my shoulder. He poked the barrel throught the slit, rested the rifle on my sholder. I stuck a finger in my ear, and told him to shoot if he had a good shot. He inhaled, then BOOM. He immediately said "I got him!"
I could not see anything - I was staring right into a wall of the blind, but I looked out after the shot to see the deer take off into the crp grass. I just caught a glimpse of his rack, but I did not get to see how the deer reacted or what it did after the shot.
We emerged from the blind, and walked over to where the deer was standing to look for some blood. We are both looking on the ground and not seeing any blood, and I am starting to think that he missed, when same looked at me and said "Dad - there is blood on your boot.' Sure enough there was a drop of blood on my boot. Then we noticed more blood, and started tracking it and it became heavier and heavier. We tracked it about 100 yards and found it piled up in the grass.
It was truly one of my most memorable hunts ever, and I am sure it is one Sam will remember for the rest of his life. We were staying at a duck hunting lodge that some friends of mine own, and we took it back to the lodge and everyone was high fiving and congratulating him like he had just won the super bowl. He had his chest puffed out - it really was a great experience for both of us.
He's already informed me that he wants a bow for Christmas...
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