This past weekend was the opener for gun season in Indiana. My oldest was a bit disappointed that he had a mandatory retreat on Saturday morning that would keep him from going. I was surprised to learn that a parent was required to attend, so instead of hiring a sitter for our youngest for the morning I decided to take him with me. Friday after school I picked up Super K (Kellen) and we headed south to our cabin.
We woke up plenty early on Saturday morning and had the customary cabin breakfast, donuts. I was hoping to hunt out of a treestand where I have killed a deer 4 years running on opening day, but beings I had a 5yo with me, we opted to sit in a ground blind that would allow him much more movement and much easier to get to. About 7am I spotted a deer come out into one of our food plots on the powerline ROW. Super K couldn't quite make him out through the screen of limbs, but all of the sudden the buck's tail went out flat and he came towards us. He smelled something he liked, as he looked like a bird dog after a running pheasant! Super K finally could see him and I asked, should I shoot him? "Shoot him daddy!" was his answer. He close the distance from 160yds to about 90yds when I stopped him with a BLAAAAHH! Except he stopped facing me and behind some brush...no shot. A shot rang out to the south and that snapped his attention back to the smell and he started moving towards me then away. Just as he was about to enter the woods on the other side of the ROW, I made sure Super K's ears where covered then dropped him. After a few minutes I asked if he wanted to go see the deer, but he wanted to watch a bit of Monsters University first.
A couple minutes later we mosied the 75yds over to the deer and Super K was stoked to find "his buck"!
We walked back to the cabin to get the UTV to drag the deer out and get some more pictures. Self timed photos with a 5yo are not the makings of great photography, but we got them taken.
Fast forward to that afternoon. My wife was beating feet south with my oldest to try to get him there in time to hunt that evening. They were able to leave at noon, so they should be there about 3pm, plenty of time for an evening sit. However, road construction and traffic from the pending Indiana-Michigan football game turned the 3hr drive into a 4hr drive. As soon as they arrived, I asked where he wanted to hunt and he chose the ground blind. So we tossed on his coveralls, grabbed his stuff and were off! For about the first hour we didn't see or hear anything. Then I could hear something across the ROW coming down the hill. The sun was in our eyes so I couldn't get a look at what was coming, but the glimpses I did catch led me to believe they were deer. From the sound we could tell they had made it down the hill and where straight across the food plot/ROW from us. Then we saw a head! Deer! And another, and another, and one more! Four deer, all anterless were milling just off the food plot. The first entered and started feeding while Spencer got on the rifle. I asked if we should wait to see if a buck was following them and all I got was, "I'm going to shoot this deer."! It soon turned broadside and cleared the deer behind it...BANG! The deer drops. It struggles to it's feet so I put another bullet in the rifle (break action single shot) and Spencer shoots again, dropping for good. The other deer just kind of stand and stare. Spencer looks at me as says, "They aren't running off, give me more bullets!". I restrained as we have a pretty full freezer, so I explained to him we are now on 'buck patrol'. The deer finally have enough and move off.
The ground blind is about 150yds behind my sisters house, where my wife and Kellen had went to visit. They heard the shots and started texting me right away. Now here's the kinda crazy part. My mother and her husband where on their way to my sister's to see everyone. The county road to their house is up the hill and turns right at the ROW, affording a good view down it. Unbeknownst to us, they were sitting on the road watching for deer when they spotted one...one that a few seconds later my son shot! They saw the whole thing go down!
With one deer down and about an hour of shooting light left we settled in to see if a buck would come out. About 20mins after he shot we had another deer come out and work it's way down the hill into our laps. Then another from a different direction came in! We had two deer within 30yds and closer for about 40mins before dark!
Spencer's trigger finger was getting VERY itchy, but we held off hoping for a buck. Just as we were packing up to leave, he said, "It was kinda cool just to watch those deer. They didn't even know we were there.". He's getting it and has the hunting bug bad! Here he is with his first, technically, buck, but we were able to hang an antlerless tag on it.
The next morning I woke Spencer up to hunt and just as we were getting ready Kellen popped awake asking, "What are you doing?"
"We're going hunting", I replied.
"Well, I'm going!" and he popped out of bed and began brushing his teeth. I was hoping to take Spencer to the treestand at the top of the hill, which doesn't have enough room for 3. So, Mom woke up and decided to take Kellen back to the groundblind and we went on to the treestand. No deer were spotted that morning, but with two in bag we headed for home and made it to both of Spencer's basketball games that evening (they won one and lost one).
All in all it was quite the "pisser" of a weekend...
Oh, they things you can do at the cabin but not at home...
We woke up plenty early on Saturday morning and had the customary cabin breakfast, donuts. I was hoping to hunt out of a treestand where I have killed a deer 4 years running on opening day, but beings I had a 5yo with me, we opted to sit in a ground blind that would allow him much more movement and much easier to get to. About 7am I spotted a deer come out into one of our food plots on the powerline ROW. Super K couldn't quite make him out through the screen of limbs, but all of the sudden the buck's tail went out flat and he came towards us. He smelled something he liked, as he looked like a bird dog after a running pheasant! Super K finally could see him and I asked, should I shoot him? "Shoot him daddy!" was his answer. He close the distance from 160yds to about 90yds when I stopped him with a BLAAAAHH! Except he stopped facing me and behind some brush...no shot. A shot rang out to the south and that snapped his attention back to the smell and he started moving towards me then away. Just as he was about to enter the woods on the other side of the ROW, I made sure Super K's ears where covered then dropped him. After a few minutes I asked if he wanted to go see the deer, but he wanted to watch a bit of Monsters University first.
A couple minutes later we mosied the 75yds over to the deer and Super K was stoked to find "his buck"!
We walked back to the cabin to get the UTV to drag the deer out and get some more pictures. Self timed photos with a 5yo are not the makings of great photography, but we got them taken.
Fast forward to that afternoon. My wife was beating feet south with my oldest to try to get him there in time to hunt that evening. They were able to leave at noon, so they should be there about 3pm, plenty of time for an evening sit. However, road construction and traffic from the pending Indiana-Michigan football game turned the 3hr drive into a 4hr drive. As soon as they arrived, I asked where he wanted to hunt and he chose the ground blind. So we tossed on his coveralls, grabbed his stuff and were off! For about the first hour we didn't see or hear anything. Then I could hear something across the ROW coming down the hill. The sun was in our eyes so I couldn't get a look at what was coming, but the glimpses I did catch led me to believe they were deer. From the sound we could tell they had made it down the hill and where straight across the food plot/ROW from us. Then we saw a head! Deer! And another, and another, and one more! Four deer, all anterless were milling just off the food plot. The first entered and started feeding while Spencer got on the rifle. I asked if we should wait to see if a buck was following them and all I got was, "I'm going to shoot this deer."! It soon turned broadside and cleared the deer behind it...BANG! The deer drops. It struggles to it's feet so I put another bullet in the rifle (break action single shot) and Spencer shoots again, dropping for good. The other deer just kind of stand and stare. Spencer looks at me as says, "They aren't running off, give me more bullets!". I restrained as we have a pretty full freezer, so I explained to him we are now on 'buck patrol'. The deer finally have enough and move off.
The ground blind is about 150yds behind my sisters house, where my wife and Kellen had went to visit. They heard the shots and started texting me right away. Now here's the kinda crazy part. My mother and her husband where on their way to my sister's to see everyone. The county road to their house is up the hill and turns right at the ROW, affording a good view down it. Unbeknownst to us, they were sitting on the road watching for deer when they spotted one...one that a few seconds later my son shot! They saw the whole thing go down!
With one deer down and about an hour of shooting light left we settled in to see if a buck would come out. About 20mins after he shot we had another deer come out and work it's way down the hill into our laps. Then another from a different direction came in! We had two deer within 30yds and closer for about 40mins before dark!
Spencer's trigger finger was getting VERY itchy, but we held off hoping for a buck. Just as we were packing up to leave, he said, "It was kinda cool just to watch those deer. They didn't even know we were there.". He's getting it and has the hunting bug bad! Here he is with his first, technically, buck, but we were able to hang an antlerless tag on it.
The next morning I woke Spencer up to hunt and just as we were getting ready Kellen popped awake asking, "What are you doing?"
"We're going hunting", I replied.
"Well, I'm going!" and he popped out of bed and began brushing his teeth. I was hoping to take Spencer to the treestand at the top of the hill, which doesn't have enough room for 3. So, Mom woke up and decided to take Kellen back to the groundblind and we went on to the treestand. No deer were spotted that morning, but with two in bag we headed for home and made it to both of Spencer's basketball games that evening (they won one and lost one).
All in all it was quite the "pisser" of a weekend...
Oh, they things you can do at the cabin but not at home...
