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Next generation - start them early
- Thread starter Red Beard
- Start date
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
It's funny how goals change. I've only been out 3 times this year but twice with my kids. It's been the season of my dreams. I got my 3 year old daughter out for her first hunt on Saturday. She did better than expected. My son coughing every two mins (he's 6) made me want to drop kick him into the stream lol. We went down into a bottom that hasn't been touched this year between two corn fields that the deer love to funnel through. Right as we got to the edge of the woods we had a deer walk in front of us at about 20 yards. It was too thick and I didn't have a primer loaded or the kids ear pro on so we just watched until he got downwind of us and turned around and spooked. Looked like a little buck but couldn't be sure. Made it into our blind and got the kids set up. They snacked all night and played and made too much noise lol but we had 20-30 mph winds that I thought would help our cause. When it got to go time and I was frustrated from all the coughing I figured I needed to chill out and let the kids have fun so I just started hitting the bleat can or a grunt every time my son had to cough. Let them do a couple. Got out of the blind and did one of those obnoxious grunting and scraping the ground sequences with a little tree rubbing mixed in that had them laughing. We were having fun and I had text my wife saying that if we saw a deer it would be because some greater being really wanted these kids to be hunters. Wouldn't you know a few minutes later I heard footsteps and in walked a doe already about 50 yards away. It was a scramble to get the kids hearing protection on, make sure they were in safe spots of the blind, and get my smokepole out a window. Every time I got on the deer she'd start to move. I'd make a noise to stop her and she'd stop behind stuff so I had no shot. She'd move again and I'd stop her behind stuff again. Played that game 3 or 4 times and the last time she got curious. Started to walk quartering at me and that was a big mistake. Put it on the point of her shoulder and pulled the trigger. Bang. Smoke everywhere. Saw her run to our right, looked out the back of the blind and didn't see her any more, checked on the kids. My daughter was not happy with how loud it was even with the hearing protection lol. My son was ready to run out the blind. Got her calmed down and everything packed up as quickly as we could to try and go find blood. Set the expectation that I wasn't sure if we got the deer (even though I'm thinking there's 0 way I missed) and walk to where she was standing. 0 blood anywhere and light fading and I'm worrying about keeping the kids up and trying to find a deer with no blood in the dark so I suggest we walk up the deer trail towards the corn field (which I thought was how she ran). We walked 20 yards and I looked up to see a butt. Doe down. Heart shot her and completely split that thing in half. She crashed before my ears stopped ringing but luckily made it up most of the hill towards the corn field. Man, did my kids celebrate. Parts of the hunt can be frustrating but I've just got to remind myself how young they are and know going in it's most likely not going to happen. It's all the stuff during the hunt that's really memorable, but being able to get deer with both my kids this year sure is the icing on the cake. Sorry for the book, but man this was a fun hunt.
Dude. This is an AWESOME account! May yall have MANY more together!!
hokiehunter373
Well-Known Member
I told my dad that I thought she was gonna be more into hunting than my son but ya just never know how that first experience is going to go. My son didn't get to see his first deer kill til this year when he was 6 and he got a couple of raccoons under his belt first, so I wasn't as concerned. This was the first thing besides fish for her. She couldn't have been more about it. Rubbing the does fur and eyeballs lol. Singing "we gottta doooeee" over and over. Just makes ya feel happy in a way you never knew could happen. We pulled in the driveway and my son immediately says, "I'm ready to go hunting again, dad". She looks at me and says, "make sure you bring your bow this time!" cause she didn't like the boom of the gun
freakin love these kids, man
I will take that all day long. That's awesome!!!!!!!!
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
- Messages
- 1,964
Congrats and great story. Those will be lifelong memories.
Took my girls out for their first hunt this afternoon. Hauled out the popup ground blind and a chair for each of us, a backpack full of snacks and notebooks. They made tons of noise and we left a hour before sundown, so didn't see a thing but they had a great time and want to go again. Successful mission.
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
- Messages
- 1,964
Twins?
Nah, two years apart, 5 and 7. Just the camera angle and the older one(in the hat) scrunching up on my shoulder.
Priceless afternoon. No intention of seeing deers. They were just stoked to have their very first outing in the woods. Sat for exactly 40 minutes and then they wanted to head back home.
And hunting in Crocs!!!!!!!
Yep. I claim them. ALL of them.
Jerome's Buck pole. And FYI.. These Yoder oatmeal cream cookies are way better than a little Debbie. 
Iron_llama
Well-Known Member
That drop cloth - is that to deaden crunchy leaf noises, or to keep kiddos clean? Either way I'm stealing that idea.
Both!
That particular one is actually a pretty cool piece of gear. It's a backpack rain cover that unzips to 57"x70". You know I'm Mr. Double Duty. So far I've used it as a ground cloth for myself (zipped), a ground cloth for the kids (unzipped), and a quick-up blind back cover.
Got out with my oldest today. It was awesome. Even saw some deers!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2022
- Messages
- 1,000
Hunted birds this morning, home to change and eat lunch, deer late afternoon/evening. No luck on the deer, successful day nonetheless.
I only have vids of deer and no photos of us, but I took my oldest daughter on her first deer hunt on Monday morning. We slipped into a section of N/S running ridge (more an observation point to watch for bucks. Wasn't set down for 10 minutes and 4 or 5 does came working down parallel to the ridge. One of the older doe got buggered and started blowing at us. She took a 260 rem to the chest. The next oldest stuck around for another 15 minutes so she took a 100 grain nosler partition to the boiler room as well. As we were letting things chill out and the rest of the doe to leave we had a buck slip in just 10 yards from us. Beautiful young buck. He milled around, sniffed the dead does, and browsed around. A coyote snuck in the same way the buck did. She took a 10mm full frontal.
Miss B assisted me and her Uncle (actually godfather) field dress them as well as hang, skin, and quarter at the house. She had a heck of a day and said she's ready to do it again.
Miss B assisted me and her Uncle (actually godfather) field dress them as well as hang, skin, and quarter at the house. She had a heck of a day and said she's ready to do it again.