Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 2014 Alabama Youth Hunt

This year was my sons 5th deer season and it has been fun watching him progress in his gun handling and become more independent, less dependent on me, to tell him what to do and how to do it.

Walking in to the field the first afternoon.


We were going to get in a shooting house on a field that has produced at least one buck for us per year over the last several years. We always walk slow and glass the field before we get there and have walked up on several deer in the past. As we got closer to the field, still about 30-40 yards from it, there was a buck standing on the opposite side of the field in edge of the wood/brush line. He already had the bipod deployed because he said he wanted to be ready in case we saw a deer walking in. I knelt down as he laid down behind the bipod. I told him to shoot when he was ready and heard a loud click a second later. He whispered "What just happened", I told him to just be still as I operated the bolt and loaded the rifle for him and told him to try it again. In a second the .243 barked, I blinked, and the deer was just gone, I mean nowhere to be seen. I asked the usual questions about where was he holding, was he steady, etc. "Yes, I know what I'm doing", he said. So we made the 100 yards or so across the field to where the buck was standing and found him. He dropped straight down into the tall grass.


And posing for the hero shot. The 95 grain fusion bullet hit high shoulder and worked for us again. It made a mess of the shoulder/spine area when we dressed him, bullet didn't exit on this one.



This year the youth hunt was on one of the coldest weekends that we have had in Alabama for the first of November. I carried a small propane heater so he wouldn't get cold and this particular afternoon had made a thermos of hot chocolate and brought plenty of snacks for the afternoon. Killing his buck before we even got to the stand like he did, we had to drink the hot chocolate on the way back to the camp.