I got the ok to hunt a small 100 acre property thats producing alot of deer. Get to the barn and my brother has the plans laid out for the morning hunt. He sends Nolan with our dad to setup in chairs along a fence row over looking Drunken Creek and what has turned out to be the SPOT this year. Then he tells Ewing and myself to hang out at the barn until light to still hunt over to Gut Ridge. He and Wyatt are doing the same but are going to be heading to Cemetery Junction. All the hunting spots were given appropriate names with the history of each location.
After having enough light to observe a fox making his way across the front field we deside to go on our way. Not ten steps and I hear Chadd, Pssst...Pssst...with the hand signal of FIVE. He manages to get Wyatt in the barn to give him a solid rest to go with the shooting stick needed for the 300yd shot. Wyatt is told to hold the cross hairs on the top of the back to make up for the drop. He settles in and takes the shot, hit low. Settles down for another with the same results. At age eleven Wyatt has taken eight one shot deer and only one miss but has never practiced or shot at this distance in front of him. Now the five confused deer have closed the distance down to just over 100 yds and angled giving me a chance to get Ewing his first shot at a deer. I get his stick adjusted and he shoulders the gun watching the deer through the scope as I help him with the safety. Bam!!! Wyatt has dropped the deer out of Ewings cross hairs before he felt comfortable enough to put his finger on the trigger. Chadd didn't realize we were trying for the shot in all the excitement and would have held Wyatt back on the shot.
First deer down and only 20 feet from the truck parked inside the barn. We leave going to our spot while the other two stay and watch two of the deer from about 400 yds but near the road not giving another chance for a shot.
Ewing and I make our little still hunt over and stop about 100 yds short of where we should be on Gut Ridge over looking the tree lined creek bed below. Not twenty minutes went by when we hear dad whisle to stop a movimg deer. The five deer were moving along the creek bottom not stopping for a clear shot. Now they are standing in the broom sage field 100 or so yards from us and exactly where we were supposed to be. Ewing gets the scope on them again but doesn't take a shot. Wow!!! he says, this is exciting.
After a few minutes pass I see Ewing is getting cold and offer to move to where we should have been and he says sure dad. After the short walk to get the blood flowing to warm up, we settle back down.
Not any time passes and we hear the whisle again bringing our attention to three small bucks moving our way. They drop down out of site at 100 yds moving our way and we get adjusted. When they come up they are only 60 or so yds but still moving and I whisle/grunt to stop them... behind the only four scrub cedars in the field. We could see the curve of an antler through a small hole just before they started on the move again and out of site for good.
I said this spot was producing alot of deer and the first hour has not been a let down. We hear yet another whisle, but this one was softer followed by 3 shots coming from Nolan and dads location. The three shots were equal distant apart making me think that they have taken good shots.
Chadd buzzes me on a text to find out what was going on and I said I'd give it 15 minutes before offering my help. 15 minutes and Ewing and I head over to Nolan and dad with grins from all the activity. Do you have anything? Nolan says he thinks so but was told not to go down to the creek bottom without us. We didn't walk 20 yds from his seat when he spotted white hair from the spot he had taken his shot. A very big doe had dropped in her track from his only shot of the morning.
Nolan was hunting with dad to help, calm and advise dad on the hunt. Nothing like a thirteen year old helping his granddad, but Nolan said he watched the first deer close from over 200 yds to within 20yds stopping giving dad a broadside standing still shot. Only problem was dad's gun was still in his lap and when he shoulder it the scope was on power nine. After the 3 small bucks came by at 50 yds broadside and no shots Nolan had given up on help and the third group of deer had a different shooter looking at them.
While sitting and discussing the morning in the quiet still air, we hear a couple of shots coming from the direction of Chadd and Wyatt. Turns out three of the deer remaining from the group Nolan shot his doe from had walked up on them bringing the group to just one.
As lessons are learned we had the boys dress the four deer with little assistance and a fine job they did. To top off the morning, while watching his brothers work, Ewing said this is my best deer hunt ever! Turns out that of all the deer hunts Ewing has been on, he has never seen a deer. Now today was action packed and the eight year old has had two deer in the scope and as he said,"Dad, I even got to take the safety off!" making for the best part of the day. Ewing will get anonther chance while his two older brothers have been retired for lack of freezer space!
Not many pictures from Saturdays hunt but Chadd did make this short clip...
Wyatt's 10ring went about 60yds and bled more than we've seen before. They said the impact of the easy shooting 7mm08 produced an amazing amount of blood visibly seen from the 80yd shot as the deer ran off. We love the performance of ballistic tips, Chadd has moly coated loads that seem to do just fine.
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