[img]
http://flic.kr/p/aQxMhv[/img]
I told my three year old daughter this evening that I was going hunting and she begged to go. I had a good evening spot to hunt where a nice 8 point is using a trail every evening, but my stand was a ground blind next to a downed tree about 75 yards from the trail- I thought even with the 3 year old fidgeting and whispering we would be good and undetected from that distance.
So off we go down the road and not two minutes from the house we spot a small spike at 200 yards. Hmmm what to do? Not having a deer in the freezer yet, I chose meat over potentially much better horns and we started stalking closer. It took a while to stalk 100 yards closer (a three year olds stalking steps are really short! lol) But I was proud of her being quite stalking and whispering and stopping when the deers heads popped up. A hundred yards closer and at a fenceline we are as close as we can get, about 100 or 125 yards. No problem for a scoped bolt gun. I braced against a wooden fencepost and squeezed the shot off. He high kicked and took off running, jumping two fences. We watched him run off for 75 yards before he went out of sight. I mentally marked where he was standing, his path of departure and the tree I last saw him by and started easing down there after a brief high high five and hug session. We were both excited! We walked over to the tree where I last saw him. Hmmm no blood trail and no deer visible off in the open woods below me. Now uncertain of a hit at all we went to where the deer was standing at the time of the shot. Nothing.
Well long story short, we searched for an hour and actually saw the deer and it's companion bound off about 30 minutes post shot. No blood, no nothing indicating a hit. I just plain ol' missed. (after describing the shot to my Dad (TN Rifleman on here) he thinks I had my rifle stock braced too hard against the side of the fencepost without a hand or something else soft between the stock and post, throwing my shot off. I've shot a long time, but didn't know not to do that! Ooops!
We had a great time anyway, she was a little bit upset that I missed. When I broke the news to her she said "But Daddy I wanted to eat that deer and make jerky!"
Watch out 8 pointer, she wants to go back tomorrow evening! LOL
[img][/img]
