Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Kids at the Campfire Boys' first Whitetail hunt

Well, After 4 days on the road and more than 3,000 miles, we are back.

We arrived in PA Saturday afternoon and got situated and unloaded. The trip was a long one but the anticipation of getting to hunt certainly helped the kids tough out the boredom of a long tedious road trip. The drive itself was uneventful, with the exception of the turnpike merry-go-round episode, lol.

Sunday came and we did some scouting to find deer tracks and likely spots to hunt from. Rod, was pretty worried since prior to the snow a few days earlier the deer had been abundant and multiple daily sightings common. After the snow, the deer seemed to vanish. Still, we found some tracks and picked out spots where everyone would hunt the following morning. Next, we drove into town to the rifle range to verify our scope settings had survived the trip. They had. We returned to my friend Rod�s house and the kids played the rest of the day; sledding, having snowball fights, playing basketball in the snow, and generally having a great time with his kids.

Rod and I of course talked guns, and Rod wowed me with his stockpile of parts & projects. We laid out all our equipment and turned in early in order to get up early for the Season opener.

Kilian 11 YO ready to hunt:
Matias 8 YO ready to hunt:

5:00 came in what seemed like the blink of an eye. My youngest son, Matias, was the first one up. He rolled over and said Daddy, let�s get ready so we can go! We all readied ourselves, ate some breakfast and headed out the door at 6:15 so as to be at our spots before sun rise. We arrived at our chosen spot about thirty minutes before sunrise and cleared out all the dried leaves so we wouldn�t make any noise once we were seated. I scouted the area and found three nice forked branches and quickly made three different length shooting sticks. I explained to the kids how to use them and to take their time if they saw a deer. We settled in and began the long wait. The kids did remarkably well sitting in subfreezing temps for three hours when Matias whispered, �Dad, I see a deer.� After a few seconds I saw what he was looking at; a huge six point buck. He immediately trained his rifle on the buck and began to wait for a good shot to present itself. The buck had heard us whispering and was staring directly at us. He was not moving. I slowly picked up one of the shooting sticks and carefully worked it under his rifle and handed it off to him. He steadied his rifle, fixed his crosshairs on the buck, and said, I can�t see the shoulder. I was confused because I could. But then it struck me, we were sitting on a little hill and the buck was on the down side of it. Matias� head was about two feet lower than mine and from his vantage point all he could see was its head. We waited patiently for almost five minutes and it would not move. Matias finally says to me, �all I can see is its head, I�ve got a good shot, I�m taking it.� BOOM! His rifle went off and the buck fell over stone dead. We all made our way over to the deer which was right at 75 yards away from where we were seated. Upon arriving we noticed Matias had hit the buck right at the base of the left antler and the bullet entered the brain. The antler unfortunately was severed at the base. Matias picked it up and proud as could be of his trophy. The buck was about 175 lbs. Probably the biggest 6 point you�ll ever encounter. Matias had a grin on his face bigger than the state of Texas! We dragged the buck over to the road and when Rod came by later with the Ranger we loaded up the buck into the bed and took it back to an area by his barn where we gutted & skinned it. Both my boys were excited as can be at this point.




We went out again later that evening and hunted the field across from Rod�s house where, up until a few days earlier, you could see half a dozen or more deer nightly. Nada. Nothing moving.

Tuesday morning we went back to the same spot where Matias got his buck and I hunted with my oldest boy, Kilian. Kilian and I sat there from before sun up til about 9:30 when he was pretty darn cold and wanted a break. The fact that we hadn�t seen anything didn�t help. So, I took the boys back to Rod�s house to warm up and left them whilst I hoofed it back to the spot and proceeded to wait some more. This time I was facing 180 degrees away from the direction Matias buck came from. There was a little trail that circled behind the hill we were on and met up with the road about 80 yards away from the hill. Around 11:00 I hear some rustling and at first thought it was the birds which had become very active. I hear it again and realize it is too much noise for birds so I crane my neck around in my best Exorcist imitation and see the hind quarters of two BIG deer. Their front shoulders and heads were obscured by a tree. I can�t turn enough from my position to get a shot at either so since there was a tree just a foot or two to my right, I thought I might be able to slowly pivot and standup behind the tree. So, I did. The deer didn�t like that and quickly bounded away about thirty yards into the brush and were gone. I was encouraged at least that the spot did have some deer and figured that we would try here again in the morning. I hunted there a few more hours and headed back to Rods.

We all decided to walk the property to see if we could scare up any deer in some of the thickets on the property. Rod�s wife scared up a nice buck that my boys saw about 80 yards away which quickly disappeared into the brush. Christa almost got a shot off at it. That sighting helped to encourage everyone.

We went out again that night but didn�t see a thing. I was amazed at the patience my boys showed. My oldest is a bit fidgety and for him to try to sit still so long had to take massive amounts of will power. I commended him on his patience and persistence. I could see he was starting to get a little discouraged so I reiterated that hunting required lots of patience. You have to wait sometimes for what seems like an eternity to see a deer and even then, you are not guaranteed a shot. I told him, that�s why we call it hunting and not shopping. He got a chuckle out of that and decided he would try again in the morning. I started to notice that the deer seemed to like to hit our spot at between 10 and 11 am so we decided to try there again in the morning.

Wednesday, we headed back to our spot and set up so that we were again facing the direction Matias got his buck from. After freezing for three and a half hours Matias decided he has to take a leak. So, I take him down the opposite side of the hill and he does his business in the distance. As we are making our way back up the hill Kilian signals us to stop whispers to us that he sees four deer. Matias and I stand still on the downward side of the hill and watch Kilian with his rifle trained in the direction of the deer for five minutes. Then, Matias and I see one lone doe sneak around the back side of the hill and emerge to our right and walk briskly for about 60 yards til she hit the road and stopped. I tried to signal Kilian that there was a doe about 75 yards away behind him but he was too engaged with the four deer in front of him. After a few more minutes the deer wandered off and disappeared into the brush. They never presented him with a clean shot. He was both excited and discouraged at the same time. We waited another hour and nothing else presented itself so we headed in.

We tried walking the property again and this time Rod's son Zach got off a shot at a deer but missed.

Around 3:30 that afternoon Kilian decided he wants to try our hill one last time before we have to head back to Colorado. We get there and decide to hunt the same hill only from a position a few yards closer to where the deer were coming from. This would give us a slightly less obstructed view. It worked, right at sundown I spy a doe that poked her head out from behind a tree. Unfortunately, at that very moment I also saw Kilian glance down and away from where the doe presented. I tried to show him where it was but was too far away to actually point to her. I managed to get him to point his scope in her direction and just told him to keep glassing the area and wait until he saw movement. He did, but unbeknownst to me, he had cranked up the scope from 4 power to 9. His field of view was so small that he couldn�t see her hind end move as she decided to back up. He finally saw her abut she was mostly hidden behind a tree and knew we were there and she walked off directly away from us toward the thicket with the tree covering her retreat. Kilian was dejected as heck. Still, he was determined to get a deer and waited well after sundown. I let him sit there a while till he finally realized that it was too dark to see anymore. I complimented him on his persistence and dedication and explained that we don�t always get a deer when we hunt. Despite his obvious disappointment he shook it off and told me he wanted to do it again.

All in all it was a huge success. We all had a super time, got to spend some much needed quality time together and had a tremendous buck to take home with us. Both boys got the hunting bug now, something I am truly grateful for.

Congratulations all

Mike, Thats a bruiser of a 6 point! Congrats to you and your boys!

I have no kids, and sharing a hunt like that with those youngsters sounds like a dream. It's great that Killian didn't let his disappointment spoil his hunt. Sounds like a great week.

Congrats to all involved!