Well yesterday started off with seeing some whitetails heading into the area we were going.
Here is an over view of where I took him:
We had several other hunters who had permission to be on this same section, with most respecting where we were located. We had one guy on foot, that actually worked in our favor of at least spooking up a buck from the river bottom, that I did not have a tag for any way. But at least Brandon got to see the buck, even if it was across the alfalfa field at 300 yards away.
The rest of the day, Brandon got to see a bald eagle sitting in a tree above the river. A couple of phesants, chip munks and tree squirrels. I had hoped to even catch a coyote or two passing thru that would have been a perfect predator kill but no such luck.
I took Brandon out and showed him the proper way for walking while hunting, so we could over look the river bottom area because of how it depresses down and provides great cover for the whitetails. I pointed out scat provided from the differant animals such as predators that are in the area. Bobcat, mountain lion, black bear and of course what we were after... Whitetail.
Brandon found several tracks that were frozen in the dirt from when it was muddy, so that was a good thing as well. We entered the woods and right away found scrapes and rubs from active bucks in the area.
Well as the day was closing, we headed out and what do we find but 7 does and 2 bucks on a property that was about 300 yards due north of the top yellow line in the picture. I told him behold what we can not shoot today, because we don't have permission to hunt that area. The look on his face was priceless, but he also realizes that I/we have to follow all the rules of fair chase and legal hunting. I explained, that no matter how bad I would like to shoot one of those does, if I did that it would make me a poacher right there on the spot.
I told him, there will be another day to hunt them if they are on the right section of property.
Brandon was one tired kid, as we drove back to town he was doing some serious nodding off :smilegrin: I found out later that he was soooo excited about this hunt, that he stayed awake all night because of being so excited. He was like a kid going to Disneyland for the first time.
When I got Brandon home, he thanked me and said that he had a real awesome time. I told him that it would not be his last time either. I also found out from my own hunting partner that he will most likely not be able to go out hunting on the final weekend of our general firearms season. So right away I thinking about Brandon, so we can pretty much get in this last week together out there, so I can try and get him and his family a whitetail doe to fill their freezer as I'm going to donate that doe to them.
It was a great day.
