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.
Dejected, I walked back to my truck where I saw the landowner mowing the lawn. He told me that I was leaving at the perfect time to see deer. I told him I had been winded and wouldn’t see anything else. He quickly redirected my attention to my 6 o’clock where a doe and button buck were standing in my watermelons. I grabbed my bow (with the arrow still at the ready) out of my truck and started to stalk as stealthily as a 6’1″ 294 lb. man can do. I knew where they were going so I took the long way around some brush and dead cars to head them off at the pass.
Emily (my 12 yr old daughter) and I hit the timber at 2:15 pm. I had her all set up and comfortable by 2:25 pm. At 2:28 pm I decided that things were a little too slow. After all, we had been sitting silently (except for the occasional sniffle, and some light conversation) for 3 minutes. I stood up and told Em that I was going for a walk. I would try and scare some deer her way. We had a layer of ice on the snow, and every step I took made it sound like an elephant was walking in my shoes. I tried to make my steps sound like an overgrown squirrel by scampering a few steps at a time and then pausing, sometimes for up to 5 minutes.
We had a full Saturday and arrived to hunt with only an hour and a half or so of hunting time. Tyler’s alergies were kicking in hard and he wanted to move but I talked him into staying. Within the next five minutes, a mature doe had appeared and was followed closely by the biggest buck I had ever seen. It took me a long time to get my adrenaline to subside enough to load the gun for Tyler. The buck was totally focused on the doe.
