Last week a co-worker told me of a 13 years old young man who needed someone to take him hunting and asked me if Id be willing to take him. It seems his dad works for the railroad and was called out of town suddenly and was not able to take the boy on his first-ever hunting trip. Dad had lined up some friends to take him, but they backed out at the last minute.
I called the mom and offered my services and yesterday was the big day. I took my oldest son Steven (hes 9) with me and we picked up Sean about noon last saturday.
We headed north of Great Falls to a ranch owned by a co-worker of mine where I have shot gophers, but never hunted there for deer.
We arrived about 1pm and had time to find a secluded spot on the ranch to allow the young man to shoot his new-to-him Remington 760 30-06 which he had never shot before.. He quickly showed me he could shoot well enough for the days hunt so off we went.
As we entered the area where I wanted to hunt, I just happened to glance off to my left and is a wheat stubble field I saw a flash of horns, ears, and head sticking op from the stubble field. A small swell in the field came up quickly and we dropped out of the bucks view enough for me to stop the truck. Sean and my son looked at me kinda puzzled as to why we stopped so suddenly. I turned to Sean and told him there was nice whitetail buck bedded down in the field to our left
get out quietly
get a shell in the chamber
and follow me.
We eased up into the field crouching as low as we could to close the gap between us and him without spooking him out of his bed. When we finally stopped, I peaked over the top of the swell and saw we were only about 40 yards from the bedded buck. I got Sean into a shooting position, gave him some time to calm his buck fever. Sean picked a spot just above the bucks head and held nice and steady while I starting slowly making some noise to try and get the buck to stand up.
He just sat there
and say there
and sat there
and sat there some more. I finally rose to my knees and when I did the buck shot straight up like a polarus missle and when he landed on his feet he was doing mach 3
running straight away
no shot. Major bummer
.
Within 20 minutes we were sitting atop a large butte with a small bunch mulies crossing a stubble field with a decent buck bringing up the rear. We crawled along a fence line in order to close the distance, but didnt get any closer than about 200 yards before they spotted us. We backed off down a coulee and let them settle down and then approached them again about 20 minutes later. This time we had the wind, and good cover in our favor. At about 100 yards, Sean said he was ready to take the shot. I glassed the herd while he got himself ready to shoot. It gets really quiet, and just when I think hes changed his mind about shooting, BANG goes the gun and OOOOWWWWWW yell Sean
Scope eye
big time
blood and all. Im sitting there thinking, His momma is gonna kill me.
Sean instead turned out to be a real trooper. We sit and there and have a bite to eat, let the bleeding stop, and his head quit hurting and he announces that we were burning daylight on his first day hunting>
We ventured on thru the day and literally saw 60 to 70 mule deer in about 3 different herds. They were VERY spooky since the season has been on for about 4 weeks now.
Finally late in the evening (5:00 ish) we found ourselves IN FRONT of a nice herd of about 20 head of mule deer does that were working their way towards us. Within a few minutes, three does peeled away from the pack and came straight at us. When they were about 80 yards out, Sean touched off a round and misses
he quickly chambers another round and fires again. A HIT! I shot her! I SHOT MY FIRST DEER!! I just watched her as she trotted over the hill limping badly.
We followed over the hill to watch her lay down in a large CRP field. I sent the boys to head that way while I got the truck. As I catch up to them in the truck, I notice that Sean is stuck in the middle of a plowed field they had to cross. He stepped into a Badger hole (I was watching the deer!!! He says
) and was stuck up to his thigh! We had to take his boot off to get him out. We finally get to where the deer had bedded down and the sun is setting fast. At about 75 yards, the doe stands up and looks like shell run again
I looked a Sean and told him he needed to make this shot count or we may lose here. He handed the gun to me and asked me to make the shot. I did and she went down without a twitch.
As we approached her, one of the other does with her stood up in front of me at about 60 yards. I thought we were done hunting so I left the 445 Super Mag in the truck ... so I drew my Ruger Blackhawk (44mag) and on the FOURTH I shot I finally connected with the deer and down it went.
Then began the fun of field dressing the deer and getting them back to the truck.
I have to admit I really enjoyed myself yesterday more than any other day of hunting in a long time. I got to help another man find a passion for the outdoors. I got to spend time with my own son in the outdoors with an older role-model for him to follow and see his interest grow as well.
It was an adventure to say the least, scope eye, WAAAYYY to much shooting than I prefer, but we made meat.
