Justin Mosier

Now Justin, my nine year old is definitely the enthusiastic one. It’s all or none with him. We finally had the perfect day, wind, temperature, location, and most of all, luck. Or so we thought. We were positioned in a double ground blind that I had recently purchased just waiting for the parade of deer to present themselves. Watching my normally constantly moving Justin try to hold still for an hour was extremely entertaining. Then it happened. A beautiful doe appeared in front at 20 yds. Easy shot for him. I could hear his heart pumping loud and fast. He took careful aim and “BAM”, I knew the venison was as good as in the freezer and all that was left were high fives and photos.

We watched in shock as the doe ran off in perfectly health. Confused, Justin pointed to the bent frame on the upper lip of our blind he was aiming over. We realized that even though he had a perfectly clear aim, the 20 gauge deer slug shooting just below his aim, contacted the frame of the blind. After inspecting where the doe had stood and finding as expected no blood, Justin collapsed in my arms in tears. I may have shed a few along myself. I thought of all the things to say to try to cheer him up with no luck.

Then I remembered the story of when I was 9, shooting a BB gun with my father out of the window from inside a car at a target. The window was 1 inch from being all the way down and I hit it. He laughed thinking it was hilarious that his own dad could make a mistake.

We now laugh about bagging a tent and joke about hanging his trophy on the wall. The good news…..he still gets to hunt with me in December, and I look forward to more memories to cherish.

Mark Mosier