2010 youth hunt reports

[whiskey]

Let us see those pictures of kids with deer!

We had a cold snap Friday night and it was the first good frost we've had on Saturday morning. Lana and I were in a double ladder stand Saturday morning. I set up this ladder stand for bow hunting, but after getting a lot of doe pictures off the trail cam near it, I decided to lay off it and let Lana hunt it for the first time during the youth hunt. We had deer nearby at first light. Problem was that all the deer were crossing the field in front of us instead of using the trail we were set up on. Because I had set this up for bow hunting, I had purposely left a lot of limbs to conceal me from the field. Lana wasn't able to get a clean shot. We ending up seeing about a dozen does and 4 bucks. All the bucks were small, but it was fun seeing deer for what seemed like 2 straight hours.

Lana had a football game to cheer for at 10am so I took her to meet my wife and I went back to move the ladder stand for evening hunt. Unfortunately I had asked my hunting partner to lock the stand for me and he used a lock that I don't have a key for. No problem, we had a backup plan. I had placed a blind on a biologic field last weekend. I had not hunted it but did have reports of lots of does using it and one giant buck had been seen right at dark a couple times. We decided to give the blind a go since Lana had killed deer on the same field the previous two years. We had deer in the woods around us an hour before sunset. They were eating acorns on the far side of the field and I thought it was going to get dark before they came out to give her a shot. Then we heard deer behind us and this big doe came out into the field 10 yards from our blind. Lana had to wait another 15 minutes for the doe to clear some brush and then a little more for her to turn broadside. The shot was perfect. She took the top off the heart and got both lungs. The big doe rolled and was DRT! Deer Jerky and Grilled Backstrap on the menu this week.

[jay1313g]

I haven't been hunting in about 15 years but, Hayden wanted me to take him this year.

Last year, Santa bought him a shotgun that had an extra barrell for shooting slugs in case we ever did go hunting. (Thanks for the great deal, Range USA!)

This weekend is the Youth Hunt weekend for the State of Tennessee so I figured it would be the best time to go. Hayden and I got up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday to head out to Shelby Forrest with NO IDEA of where we'd go in the woods. I figured we'd just walk out there and sit a while and get it out of his system. (As you know, Hayden doesn't sit still very well.)

When we arrived around 6:30 a.m., I remembered that you have to get a special WMA permit from the front office before you can hunt on the land. We went back to the front of the park to find out the office was not open. At about 8:15, I saw one of the Park Rangers going to the mailbox and asked him about getting the special permit. He told me they didn't open until 9:30 but, took us inside anyway to take care of the permit for us.

By 8:30, we were on our way down the hunting roads. We tried to turn in to the first open spot we saw and noticed there was already someone parked in that area. Not wanting to disturb the other hunters that had their act together, we moved on to the second area we could pull off and it was open. We started hiking blindly in to the woods and I saw where someone had pink markers on some of the trees so I decided to follow their trail and hoping it would be worth our while. After about 250 yards of hiking, I was tired of HIKING and told Hayden that we had found the perfect place!!! We sat down by a tree and I checked my watch. It was 9 a.m. and I was about ready for a nap. I figured he might make it until noon and this whole deer hunting thing would be out of his system.

A few minutes later, I noticed some movement about 25 yards from us. I looked up to see a spike buck. I reached over and tapped Hayden the arm and then another buck came behind that one! It was bigger and had bigger antlers. As the deer moved through the opening, Hayden had to turn to 90 degrees to his right, while sitting, and raise his gun for an awkward shot. The bigger deer looked directly at us and stomped his foot. I whispered to Hayden to remain very still but, I could see the weight of his rifle was causing him to lower it. The first deer turned around and came back past the bigger one, looked over at us, and then back to the bigger deer as if to say, "Nothing's there". When the smaller deer moved, I whispered to Hayden, "Take him. Take him."

BAM! The shot from the 20 gauge, with the end of the barrell only about 18 inches from my head made my ears ring and I could barely see through the smoke. However, I did see that bigger deer buckle from the force of the impact and then dropped within the next two seconds. It was a very humane harvest and the deer never knew what hit it. I looked at my watch and it was now 9:15.

We had only been in the woods for 15 minutes and this little punk had dropped a buck in its tracks! In the several years I hunted, I did good to just see a doe. This is NOT FAIR! Hayden had sat with his grandfather in a blind before but, this is really the first time he had gone on a real hunt and got to hold the gun.

We waited 20 minutes and then went over to check it out. On Hayden's first hunt, he had harvested a 5 point buck within 15 minutes of sitting at the base of a tree that we decided on because I was tired of walking. Not even knowing how to field dress a deer, I really didn't know what to do next other than drag it 250 yards, through the woods, back to the truck and deal with it then. I don't know how much the deer weighed but, I'd guess around 10 million pounds by the time I made it back to the truck. (I only had to stop 7 or 8 times along the way.) Fortunately, another hunter stopped by to see what we had and walked me through the field dressing part.

We checked it in at the closest station and I've taken it to the processor. We should have deer meat in a week or so for Amy to cook although, I doubt she will eat it.

God couldn't have given us a more perfect day to hunt or hunting experience today.

Jay

[ShaunM]

It's great to see the future hunters with their harvests.

[jay1313g]

My son is pumped! He just doesn't see what's so hard about hunting????

Looks like I'm in the market for a rifle now.

[whiskey]

My son is pumped! He just doesn't see what's so hard about hunting????

Looks like I'm in the market for a rifle now.

Awesome story. Nothing wrong with that 20ga. slug gun. My daughter has a Mossy with a slug barrel too, but she had the Remington 700 SPS in .243 first. It is a much less recoil than the 20ga slug and is a super sweet shooter. Remington has the same gun in 7mm-08 in youth size.

[DaveS]

Edited October 31, 2010 by wd-40

[DaveS]

Well, something went haywire with this post!

K-Bug and myself arrived at her hunting spot this morning before daylight. Using the headlights on the 4-wheeler, she placed her "redi-doe" decoy out at about 40 yards from her stand, and on the edge of a small field that the deer feed on white oak acorns along the edges. She placed "Tinks- Doe in heat" scents bombs along the edge of the field. We sat in the groundblind from daylight to about 8am. The thermos of coffee got cold (time for a new thermos) and misery set in. After seeing several deer moving inside the woodline and the far side of the field (about 100 yards away) she decided that we should get up and move, and "take it to'em" since they were'nt coming to us.

We moved to the far end of the field, and run off two small does in the process. We saw movement about 75 yards away and it turned out to be a big doe. K-Bug was going to take her as she was quatering toward us. K-Bug hit her "Doe in estrus" bleat call to stop the Doe for a shot. She hit the bleat, and "Billy Bad A**" came trotting out of the woods into the edge of the field. He stoped dead in his tracks, and stood there looking at the decoy. He stopped and was facing head on. She hit the bleat again, and he started slowly walking toward us and the decoy. He stopped about 60 yards out, made a right turn and started walking off. K-Bug hit the bleat call and bingo....he stopped broadside to her. She "called down the thunder" with her 7mm/08 and he lunged forward about and 5 yards and bit the dirt. She is still up on a cloud! Nothing beats watching your children take game on a hunt!

The buck was 12 point Non-Typical with a total of 5 bladed brow tines. He dressed about 160. I'm jealous!!

Edited October 31, 2010 by wd-40

[DaveS]

Lana and Hayden....Nice deers Kids! You went out and "made memories" with your Dads. How awesome!! Congrats to all of you!

[Guest 308Phantom]

My son got these 2 early Saturday with the 6.8 AR. Jerky coming soon.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[DaveS]

Nice deer!! I would be cutting some steaks off those tender deer...heck with jerky!!!

[gregintenn]

Great pics everybody! My son didn't have time to go yesterday. This morning, I hate to tell you that he shot a very nice buck, and we couldn't find it. I believe he likely gut shot it. It's partly my fault. I've taught him to shoot behind the shoulder, and this deer was walking toward us. It turned just a bit, and that's where he shot; right behind the shoulder. He knows better now. I hate it like everything, but the deer just isn't anywhere to be found.

[whiskey]

Great pics everybody! My son didn't have time to go yesterday. This morning, I hate to tell you that he shot a very nice buck, and we couldn't find it. I believe he likely gut shot it. It's partly my fault. I've taught him to shoot behind the shoulder, and this deer was walking toward us. It turned just a bit, and that's where he shot; right behind the shoulder. He knows better now. I hate it like everything, but the deer just isn't anywhere to be found.

Sorry to hear that, but it happens. Tell him to hang in there, it happens to all of us sooner or later, he just got his lesson sooner.

I have to make Jerky because that is what the huntress has declared. I made a couple big batches last year and she ate it up so fast I barely got any. Deer jerky is what my girl get up early for. She won't turn down grilled bacon-wrapped tenderloin either though.

[DaveS]

You're making me hungry J/W!

[Guest clutepc]

Great Deer Everyone!! Nice to see the kids doing so well!!

[DaveS]

Yes, they are all great deer! What I like seeing is that these young hunters are TAKING the time to spend time with their dads, and that all of us dads are taking the time to spend with our children. There are so many out there that aren't so lucky! I wouldn't trade moments like these with my kids and grandkids for no amount of money in the world!

[Guest ADAM]

CONGRATS to all the kids.I cant wait for two kids to get old enough to pull the trigger.

[Guest Spurhunter]

Here is my report from Bedford Co.

Sean and I have been busy getting this little lease ground ready for the kids to hunt this year and we were plenty excited to get into the woods for opening morning. My bud Robin and his 10 yr old met us at the house at 5 and we took off. We caught up to Sean at the gate going in, and he said Andrew was feeling under the weather, but still brought him out hoping he would feel a little better.

Since Sean could only hunt until mid-morning, I offered for them to use the stand that i think will be the best this year, and since Corbin had never hunted before we put him and Robin in the BIG double stand we setup recently, which left me and Storm huffing it up to the highest spot on the lease along ridge. This is a tough stand to hunt because you have about an 8' shooting lane going straight away left and right, and thats pretty much it. We have it right on the fence-line, so even when all the leaves die off, we might see a deer, but cant shoot behind us untill it crosses over the fence.

About 9AM I caught movement to my right and saw a HUGE coyote come into the lane, I told Storm to aim, but it moved right across without time to shoot. About 9:20ish I heard a deer blow a couple times towards our gate, which is where we park and across the fence is a field that the hunters that lease that property have planted into a foodplot. I assumed Sean and Andrew had just spooked one when walking out. About 15 mins later Storm and I were a little cold, so we decided to walk out our trail to the end and see what would happen. We got about 200 yards from the stand and jumped 5 deer right on top of the fence-line. We tried to get a shot, but no-go, they never got in a clear position for us. When we started back to the stand, Sean called and said the other hunters had jumped at least 15 deer, including two bucks in the field at the gate, most of them with-in 100 yards of our trucks! LOL Thats Spur-luck for you, the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side. So thats what I had heard earlier, when the deer were blowing. The good thing is, they said all the deer ran right onto our place, we just didnt have a person close enough to see them this day.

Storm and I decided to get back into the stand, and at 10:35 I was looking at the exact spot the coyote stepped out and saw a deer poke out. Storm saw it right as I was about to speak and she aimed, of course the only chance at this angle was to shoot left-handed, which she has never done before. She said she was on it, I pushed the safety off for her as she could not reach it wrong-handed, and she pulled the trigger and the big doe looked like she got hit with a taser! She fell straight over with her legs stiff as a board. I perfect spine shot at 94 yards on the rangefinder.

We stayed in the stand a few minutes hoping another deer would pop out, but she wanted to go check it out pretty quick. Thank God it was ALL down-hill to drag this one, I am guessing about 500 yards all told, but still not a blast with a large deer.

Sean and Andrew did not see anything on stand, and Robin and Corbin didnt either, but deer were all over the place, its still way too thick to see like we need to. Things will just get better and better over there.

After lunch when we pulled in to hunt the evening, right in that field, just 100 yards before our gate was three does feeding, they didnt even run off, just moved off in the woods and popped back out a few minutes later when we were getting ready to go hunt. Stupid deer! The evening hunt was nice weather, but un-productive as neither of us saw anything, but I have high hopes that we will get some tags filled for the youngsters all season.

[Guest Spurhunter]

Can you see the deer down in the trail?

A little zoom might help.

[Guest billwilly73]

I took my nephew and my little brother. We had fun, but we got skunked. The property we hunt still has standing corn so places to hunt from are limited. We have two shooting houses, that sit on the ground, on the property and the corn is about 10 feet from the front so we couldn't hunt from them. There is one spot that we were able to set up a pop-up blind. We saw tons of squirrels and birds, but no deer. I think once they cut the corn I will take them back.

[ShaunM]

I was showing my daughter these pictures and she asked if she could shoot a deer. She is 6 now so in a couple of years I hope she still wants to go. Great pics everyone.