"Alright Trevin, when this doe takes five more steps get ready to shoot".

"Ok"

"Are you sure you see the right one? He is the one on the left closest to the fence"

"Yeah, I see him"

"Make sure you are solid and keep your eyes open"

"OK"

"Ok, she is clear, get up on the gun and shoot him..."

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We had already had a great day out on a friends ranch. Trevin's mom and older brother Carsten came along to hunt coyotes and help locate game.



We glassed a lot...



...some more than others...



...walked a bunch



...made some good stalks that just didn't work out (tough to shoot over brush when you are 4' tall!)...



...a few that didn't even come close to working out...



...used some impressive stalking skills to outwit a porcupine (arguably North America's brightest and quickest game animal).



...and even called in a few deer.



About mid-day Trevin showed some true sportsmanship and gave a nice mature doe a warning shot.



He then informed me he had closed his eyes just before the shot. It was that revelation that prompted my reminder a couple hours later...

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At last light he was lined up on what was possibly the biggest buck he will have a chance to shoot for many years. He was big enough that when my older son Carsten and I were glassing him we both looked at each other and mouthed a silent "HOOOOLLLLYYY CRRAAAAAP"! Neither of us wanted to get 11 year old Trevin too excited as we still had to finish the stalk, not spook the other deer that were around and somehow manage to avoid a collision course with a yearling doe that was hellbent on walking across the open prairie right into our laps.

In our effort to get into position we had set up several times and then moved. Each time I would remove the round from the chamber and hand the rifle to Trevin. When approaching our final spot, the little doe forced us to freeze and we had a lengthy Mexican standoff for several minutes while the doe was inside 30 yards. I had ranged the buck at 250 yards and he was slowly working his way closer to us.

By the time the doe decided to skirt around us the buck was probably close to 200 yards and mostly broadside. The doe had spooked a bit and the buck and his companions were keyed up a little and staring right at us. It was then that I told Trevin to get up on the gun and shoot.

I had the deer in my binos waiting for a report and hoping to get a visual on the impact. I was focused, Trevin was calm, the buck was holding his ground...


"CLICK"


When the doe had forced us to freeze I didn't dare reload the gun and when it was finally time to shoot I had failed to have Trevin load it again. We were safe...but unfortunately so was the buck. We quickly got a shell loaded but the buck was having none of that and he exited stage left.

I stood up and silently bit my lip and tried not to puke. We live where there is a lot of deer and big whitetails are killed every year. Even so, whitetails pushing 150" on the heavily hunted areas I typically have access to are not to be taken for granted. Poor Trevin was about to notch his tag on a dandy and his idiot dad failed him. I actually pulled up the syllabus for Killing Big Bucks 101 and sure enough right there after the sections on "Corn Application", "Proper Deer Piss Distribution" and "Camo Coordination" was the section titled "Load Your Gun Prior to Pulling the Trigger....Dumbass".

I am not going to lie, hearing that rifle click on an empty chamber hurt my soul a little bit. Trevin was a good sport about it all but I felt terrible.



Sometimes the big ones only give you one shot before they spend the rest of the season on the neighbors where they are protected. I knew our chances of seeing him again, although not zero, weren't good.


To be continued...

Don’t feel bad I left the house to go turkey hunting last weekend totally forgot to load the gun called in 3 gobblers to 30yds 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Great pics and writing as usual Jud!👍

I took my nephew on his first deer hunt about 10 years ago. I put him on a scrape line not very far from me. I could see a Big Buck heading in his direction. He had a 150 class Buck walk past him at 40yds. It came from behind him. He froze and let the Buck pass by. Then he lined up for a perfect shot at his first deer. He squeezed the trigger on my Rem 700 280AI and nothing. He was so excited to see that Big Buck that he forgot to take the safety off. When he realized what happened he flipped the safety off and CLICK. The Buck bolted and he never even got off a shot. We practiced slowly pushing the safety forward 10 times earlier. But all that went out the window when he saw that Big Buck at that distance. He Did shoot a Big Doe that trip. He has shot several nice Bucks since then. But 10 years later he says he can still remember that awful feeling in the pit of his stomach when that Buck ran off. It happens. Its all part of learning the hard way.

...Continued

I didn't sleep well that night. I was kicking myself for messing up but also thinking about the best play to try to find the big buck again. The rules are very different for hunting a specific buck versus simply hunting bucks. We were lucky in that the buck had ran off the bench he was feeding on and down into the creek bottom where he would stay on our permission. We had one more day to hunt and we wanted to make the most of it.



The decision was made to be at a glassing spot near the creek bottom at first light to see if we could catch any movement up or down between the hayfield on the bench and the cover in the creek bottom.

We were in a good position and were looking at deer from the moment it was light enough to see but we never saw the big one.



These are prairie deer and there was a very good chance he had made it back to the feeding area in the dark and simply found a grassy swale in the prairie to spend the rest of the day. I didn't want to risk bumping him so we decided to spend the middle of the day on a different section of the ranch where we might catch a deer passing through.

That plan worked and we did manage to lay eyes on a few deer but nothing that got Trevin even remotely excited. He was getting pretty bored and I was lucky enough to find a knowl with some cell coverage so we watched a little youtube before it was time to start the evening hunt.

I wanted to repeat our morning and focus on catching deer moving from the creek to the field. If we didn't see the bigger buck within the last hour we would drive up to the bench and sneak out to the field in hopes he had bedded somewhere else and was up and feeding.

Our timing was good and we were once again watching deer constantly. Mostly does and fawns and a few smaller bucks. When it felt like our daylight budget was about spent we made the move up to the upper fields. We were cresting out to an area I had planned to park the truck when we noticed some deer in a small coulee right in front of us. I noticed two nice bucks bedded. "I think that is our buck!", I blurted out and immediately backed up the truck so we could make a move.

I grabbed Trevin's little .243 and told him to get out and get out QUICKLY! He did as instructed and told me to put a bullet in the gun!

Thanks son.

The bucks had moved but were still on our permission about 150 yards away. I setup the bipod and told Trevin to hold on him and shoot when he felt good. The buck was quartering hard away and looking right back at us. I knew that he was not "The" buck, not even close to the same caliber, but he was most definitely in the "damn-fine" class.

Trevin did not hesitate.

At the crack, the buck immediately dropped and rolled ten feet down the hill; his neck broken when the 85 TSX pierced the crease in his neck. He kicked a bit and locked a front hoof into his antlers. Within a few seconds it was all over.

Trevin had made a fantastic shot under pressure and he was all smiles.



A few more pics for posterity and then we decided there was just enough light to fill Trevin's doe tag if there were any deer in the field on top of the bench.



We made a quick walk to the rise where we could just see the field. There were deer out in the field and we made a long belly crawl toward the closest doe. She was exiting the field into the grassy area where we were located. Everytime she would put her head down we would gain a few yards. When her head came up and we would stop. Rinse, repeat. Eventually we were within 150 yards but she was obscured by tall grass. She saw us and was concerned but wasn't sure exactly what we were. She got nervous and started trotting, her line of travel bringing her a few yards closer and in full view.

She stopped just shy of a barb wire fence and I didn't even have time to give the green light before..."Boom!!!"

The deer took the shot through both shoulders, flopped backwards and hardly twitched.

"Dad, did you see that? She flipped over backwards! I kept my eyes open. That felt reeeaaallyy good!"

He was visibly excited and enjoying the moment.



Almost 24 hours earlier, and less then 300 yards up the fenceline we were having a rough night after a tough loss. Tonight it was nothing but smiles as Trevin was able to make two fantastic shots and fill both his tags for the year. It was a huge confidence booster for him and a great evening to share with my two boys.

To be continued...

MedRiver: Fantastic Hunt - thanks for sharing!
And pass along my congratulations to the young Hunters.
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

That's just awesome. Congrats to you and the boy on a couple of great deer.

...Continued

The next morning was opening day for the general season. With Trevin tagged out I wanted to take a couple kids up to the mountains to look for elk. I had an area scouted during bow season and had a pretty good idea where the escape routes would be with opening morning pressure. I am apparently not the only one that thinks that way and we got to share a parking area with a bunch of new friends. With vehicles near the trails to my preferred spots I had to go to my plan C choice. Still viable...but a lower percentage hunt due to the amount of area you could, or rather, could not see.



It turned out to be a non-issue as the snow and fog pretty well destroyed all visibility over 150 yards.



Kenna had been elk hunting for exactly 1/2 day last year and killed an elk. I think this was not as exciting for her as last year.



By ten nothing had moved through what we could see and my two frozen kidsicles had enough of hanging around in wet conditions with no visibility so we headed home.



It was time to start working on Trevin's deer which we had left hanging outside with the hide on. Processing is a big part of our hunting lifestyle and Trevin was all about it. Probably more so than most of my kids have been.



He is a quick study. With a few tips and a little help from dad and our skinning setup, he had the hide off and was ready to break it down.





I was taught to break off the rail so that is how we do it when they come in whole. I would do one side then he would do the other. By the time he is out of the house he should have some great skills.



We had to take a break at dinner to fry up some tenderloins. Black pepper, garlic salt, Tony Cacheres, egg and flour right into the hot oil. Killer





Continued...

...Continued

The next night we cut up his buck which had a tremendous fat layer. Harder to teach muscle groups on fatty critters but he helped trim and we generally just enjoyed hanging out in the shop together.





I like to temper my trimming for burger so typically put it in the freezer and grind the next day, adding in beef fat. It goes quick with two extra helpers so my nine year old came out the next night to help with the bagging.



When it was all said and done we had about 90 pounds of 85/15 burger to give away to folks in our community. Should add a fair bit to the pile before the season ends.



Thanks for coming along!

Congrats all around a heck of a day for the young man. Dandy buck for sure and great shooting.

Way to go,
That's a dandy of a buck...
Congrats to you guys.

Congratulations! Always enjoy you sharing.

Headed to Glendive in 13 days. Love Montana. Congratulations to all involved. Great story.

A Big Congrats to all of you. Thanks for the write up and pics!

Awesome story! Congrats to the lad on a damn fine buck!

Holy cow those prairie bucks get big in the body.

I look forward to your family chronicles each season.
And fine looking tribe you've got there too.

Thanks for sharing!

Yep, this for sure.

Love the family land to table (teaching) lifestyle.

You are blessed, Mate !

Great thread as always - much appreciate your taking us along each year!!

Great stuff here. Congratulations.

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing another amazing write-up.

This brings tears of joy to my cynical turn of mind.

Way cool

Freaking amazing, great job guys and gals. Love this

Thanks for all the positive comments guys. I show them to the kids and they get a kick out of them.

Excellent!!

Great read as usual..Congrats to all.

Great story!!

Medriver; you have a great gift for putting together an amazing selection of words and photographs into a wonderful story.

Thanks