41 Mag
Member
The oldest grandson just turned 11 over Thanksgiving. He isn't new to hunting and has been out with me since he was old enough to understand what Ssshhhh meant. He got his first hog just before his 4th birthday using reduced loads out of my Ruger 308 Compact.
That said the wife and I bought a 10 acre plot just a mile up the road from our bigger place to build on sometime in the future. We chose it more or less due to location and the fact this particular grandson said "you gotta get this place Pawpaw". Well he said that due to the fact when we initially walked it we found over a dozen scraps and numerous rubs on 3-4" diameter trees. In this area those aren't small bucks doing the rubbing.
So we hunted it a couple of times over the week of Thanksgiving. I myself missed a nice 8 point twice with my 45 Colt. I blame it on buck fever, as I know the loads and the gun shoot great. That said, we had the same buck within 20yds of us getting him, when his younger brother coughed and that was that. It was still a fun hunt with the two kids.
We also hunted it two weekends back several times morning and evening both to no avail with fresh scrapes in two locations, hoping to catch the tending buck or bucks off guard. He had to be back in school on that Monday, and I sat out there just to see what I could see and had 5 shooter bucks come by me as if on a string. Go figure.
As the season is rolling to a close we were determined to get on one of these bucks. We were out there this past Sunday morning in 23 degree weather setting up under some brush. We sat motionless from 06:00 up until 08:45 when I noticed movement. Trust me we were both plenty ready to go at this point. That said the boy got in gear, he was set up and ready as the nice buck eased off the power line right of way and along a path we had cut along the fence. He was simply a dead deer walking at this point. We were only 30'ish yards away as he eased in behind some youpon which was about 10yds wide and the boy raised the little Ruger up and was ready for him to step out into the open.
We waited and waited, and I could just barley see his legs and feet through the brush with my bino's. I watched and whispered to the boy to just be ready when he stepped out. It seemed like forever before I saw his feet move, and it was disheartening to see that they went straight up and over the fence behind the brush, and the buck eased up the hill to bed down on the other property.
The boy asked "should I have shot him when we saw him", as we did have an open shot for a couple of minutes before he eased up and towards us. The only issue was it was an opening of only a few inches, and the buck was looking straight at us making the shot a full on frontal, one I didn't want him to take. I had already explained that being we were hunting such a small area that IF he had a shot, it was going to have to drop the deer in it's tracks as we didn't have much option on tracking one if it jumped the fence. He knows that when I say this the shot has to be through the shoulders and neck junction so that it disables the CNS and drops the deer immediately. He has done it a couple of times before on both deer and hogs so knew what his job was.
Well as things worked out, we very quietly eased out after a half hour more of sitting and whispering about what had transpired and hopefully didn't alert the buck to our presents there. He came away with the satisfaction of knowing he didn't wound anything, and that even though we didn't put meat on the ground we got to see an awesome buck simply going about his thing, and that even if we didn't manage to get him this year, he would be back next year even better.
It is really something to hunt with the kids, and especially one that understands things the way this one does. He don't have to shoot anything to have fun, and truth be told would be just as happy with his BB gun out chasing the gofers in the back yard. Still in all he put up with the 20 something degree temps, for longer than I figured he would, in the hopes of bagging a good buck. I told him even though we didn't get this one, that it wasn't even the best one of the bunch I had seen there the week before. Hopefully his mom will be able to get him over there this week or on the weekend before the season ends to get one or the other of them.
We'll see, he has a week to go....
That said the wife and I bought a 10 acre plot just a mile up the road from our bigger place to build on sometime in the future. We chose it more or less due to location and the fact this particular grandson said "you gotta get this place Pawpaw". Well he said that due to the fact when we initially walked it we found over a dozen scraps and numerous rubs on 3-4" diameter trees. In this area those aren't small bucks doing the rubbing.
So we hunted it a couple of times over the week of Thanksgiving. I myself missed a nice 8 point twice with my 45 Colt. I blame it on buck fever, as I know the loads and the gun shoot great. That said, we had the same buck within 20yds of us getting him, when his younger brother coughed and that was that. It was still a fun hunt with the two kids.
We also hunted it two weekends back several times morning and evening both to no avail with fresh scrapes in two locations, hoping to catch the tending buck or bucks off guard. He had to be back in school on that Monday, and I sat out there just to see what I could see and had 5 shooter bucks come by me as if on a string. Go figure.
As the season is rolling to a close we were determined to get on one of these bucks. We were out there this past Sunday morning in 23 degree weather setting up under some brush. We sat motionless from 06:00 up until 08:45 when I noticed movement. Trust me we were both plenty ready to go at this point. That said the boy got in gear, he was set up and ready as the nice buck eased off the power line right of way and along a path we had cut along the fence. He was simply a dead deer walking at this point. We were only 30'ish yards away as he eased in behind some youpon which was about 10yds wide and the boy raised the little Ruger up and was ready for him to step out into the open.
We waited and waited, and I could just barley see his legs and feet through the brush with my bino's. I watched and whispered to the boy to just be ready when he stepped out. It seemed like forever before I saw his feet move, and it was disheartening to see that they went straight up and over the fence behind the brush, and the buck eased up the hill to bed down on the other property.
The boy asked "should I have shot him when we saw him", as we did have an open shot for a couple of minutes before he eased up and towards us. The only issue was it was an opening of only a few inches, and the buck was looking straight at us making the shot a full on frontal, one I didn't want him to take. I had already explained that being we were hunting such a small area that IF he had a shot, it was going to have to drop the deer in it's tracks as we didn't have much option on tracking one if it jumped the fence. He knows that when I say this the shot has to be through the shoulders and neck junction so that it disables the CNS and drops the deer immediately. He has done it a couple of times before on both deer and hogs so knew what his job was.
Well as things worked out, we very quietly eased out after a half hour more of sitting and whispering about what had transpired and hopefully didn't alert the buck to our presents there. He came away with the satisfaction of knowing he didn't wound anything, and that even though we didn't put meat on the ground we got to see an awesome buck simply going about his thing, and that even if we didn't manage to get him this year, he would be back next year even better.
It is really something to hunt with the kids, and especially one that understands things the way this one does. He don't have to shoot anything to have fun, and truth be told would be just as happy with his BB gun out chasing the gofers in the back yard. Still in all he put up with the 20 something degree temps, for longer than I figured he would, in the hopes of bagging a good buck. I told him even though we didn't get this one, that it wasn't even the best one of the bunch I had seen there the week before. Hopefully his mom will be able to get him over there this week or on the weekend before the season ends to get one or the other of them.
We'll see, he has a week to go....
