With the season winding down we went for a late-season
chance to get Tyler a deer this weekend. Two years ago he took his first doe.
Last year he hunted hard, and he passed on some smaller deer, but he never got
a shot off.
This year he again hunted very hard. He’s on the swim
team, so many weekends he can’t hunt due to swim meets. This weekend he got up
at 0515 Saturday morning for a swim meet, then his momma drove him down to meet
us for the afternoon hunt. What seems to be typical for the weekends he hunts
is sub-freezing temps, wind, and precipitation…it’s a wonder the kid keeps
coming back. This weekend the weather ranged from snow and temps in the 20’s to
rain and temps in the upper 40’s.
Saturday afternoon he almost got a shot off on a doe but
right when the deer was about to walk into his shooting lane it started to trot
and denied him a good shot. We finished out the evening hunt with no luck. We
then did a long hike back to the truck over some difficult snow/mud covered
terrain. No complaints from the kid…he did ask to stop once because his fingers
were “burning” from the cold. We took a minute to warm them up then we marched
on.
Sunday morning we hunted a big corn field on a two-man
ladder stand. This would enable us to sit side-by-side so I could provide
guidance. I thought we’d see a small doe and let him bloody his new rifle. We
got to the stand about 0630…this was a little later than I wanted but it would
work as we still had 5 minutes before legal shooting time. The first few
minutes on stand were spent alternately scanning the dark expanse before us for
activity and getting his gear set up. After roughly 4 minutes I saw a large
bodied deer emerge from the standing corn on the left side of the field. It was
clearly a much larger bodied deer than I normally see so I was excited that
this would be a good shot opportunity. I leaned over to him and whispered
“deer”. At that moment the adrenaline began to flow into his blood stream like
jet fuel into an afterburner and the shaking began.
I pulled my rifle up to get a look at the deer through
the scope and while I couldn’t tell how big or small the rack was I was
confident that it was a buck. Trying to pick out antler mass against a wet
cornfield in low light conditions is a difficult proposition…especially as the
range increases. This deer was 142 yards away and standing there in the dim
early light of an overcast winter morning. It was late in the season and the
kid needed a deer and I was sure this was a big bodied specimen and it has some
headgear so I leaned over to him again and whispered with a sense of urgency
“kill that deer.”
Now the shaking really kicked in. He was shaking so
violently that it was like sitting in the stand with a running jackhammer. I
swear you could have cracked walnuts between his knees they were knocking so
hard. From my perspective it seemed like an eternity. Once I gave the order to
shoot I felt very exposed…like that deer was about to figure out exactly where
were and would bolt. I knew this deer wouldn’t stay long on the field. He was
still just barely out on the field…he was so close to cover that it looked like
his tail was still in the standing corn…two steps and he would be gone. Two
steps and the kid gets nothing for the year. Two steps and three years of
hunting goes by with no shot on a decent buck.
After about 5 seconds (felt like days) Tyler told me that
he was shaking too hard to get a shot off. Despite the urge to scream “HURRY UP
AND SHOOT!!!!” I did the proper thing and calmly told him that it’s OK…just
take your time…calm down…focus on the fundamentals…and when you feel like
you’ve got a good sight picture just do your thing.
Another few seconds goes by with me alternately watching
this deer and watching my son’s body violently shaking under the load of
moment. I glanced over and noticed that his finger still wasn’t on the
trigger…I’m stressed at this point. All I can do is watch.
When I see him take the safety off and engage the trigger
I look downrange and wait. His rifle cracked the silence of the first legal
minute of shooting light and set in motion a chain of events that he will never
forget.
I was shocked with the quickness of the deer’s reaction.
It turned around and bolted into the corn so quickly that it looked like it was
under rocket power. It didn’t exhibit any of the signs of an animal that was
hit. It made a terrible racket as it busted through the standing corn and took
off to parts unknown. Tylers first question to me was “do you think I hit it?”
All I could tell him was that it didn’t look like he did but we won’t know for
sure until we get down there and check. It was everything I could do to keep
him in the stand…he really didn’t like the fact that I was going to wait 20 or
30 minutes before we started tracking. Interestingly enough Tylers perspective
on this chain of events was perceived much differently than my own. As is often
the case in high stress situations the brain reduces the tempo of your
perception to slow motion. When I asked him what he thought of the deer’s
reaction he said “it just turned around slowly and walked off.” I had to laugh
at that…he was definitely in the pressure zone.
Ultimately we got down and didn’t find any sign that the
animal was hit…no hair…no blood. I set off in the direction I thought it went
and over the next 30 minutes we found no sign that the deer was hit. We then
went back to the scene of the crime and I asked him how he felt about his shot.
He said he felt very good about it. He said he had a good sight picture, his
breathing was good, and he had a good trigger pull. The kid can shoot and I
trust his judgment…so I went back to tracking. I pushed further up the field
and ultimately found a corn cob with blood all over it. At that point I told
Tyler we’ll get this deer…if you leave blood I’m going to find you. His spirits
lifted immediately. I can only imagine the sense of hopelessness he must have
felt as he was relying on someone else for everything and it was all turning up
negative until we found that blood. Once I showed him the first sign of blood
he exclaimed “ I KNEW I hit him!”
This turned out to be one of the most difficult tracking
jobs I’ve ever had. The deer left very little blood which concerned me. Tyler
got a great lesson in tracking and was a very good helper in this process. The
blood trail died after about 50 yards and we were left to doing some very basic
search patterns until we found the next sign. Ultimately I found a single drop
of blood that filled in a 100 yard gap that had no sign at all. We got our big
break when I found a track in a creek bottom that led my eye to a single drop
of blood in the snow. This was good…the deer was running straight toward a snow
covered corn field. Even the slightest of blood would show up easier than in
the mud and leaves we had been tracking him across earlier.
I called Tyler up to my position, put him on the blood
trail, told him to keep his rifle ready, and to track that deer down. We had
gone about another 50 yards toward some woods when the trail dried up again. I
searched for a moment then announced “there’s another drop of blood” and he
answered back “and there’s a dead deer.”
After more than 2 hours of tracking I couldn’t believe
the words he had uttered. I bent down and looked into the woods and sure enough
there he was. Laying in the snow with a bloody corn stalk that he had dragged
the whole way.
It took three years of hard hunting in some difficult
conditions but the boy got his first buck…and a dandy at that. I couldn’t be
prouder of the kid for his hard work and his great attitude…and I couldn’t be
happier for him that he put this deer on the ground. That night he got to tell
stories and feed the guys at camp with fresh venison tenderloin.
That was a great weekend…neither of us will ever forget
it.
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