Good morning to all around the Campfire. Up early, but not to go hunting this morning. Coffee is on, fire is going, and I'm listening to rain on the roof and thankful for another family deer adventure that turned out even better than I had hoped.

Our deer season got off to a slow start this year as I was gone the first four days of the season with students at a National Science Teachers Association convention in Kansas City, so Sunday was our first day out. My wife and I divided up and hunted with Grace and Layne in different spots. The morning hunt found Grace and I overlooking one of our favorite spots, but we didn't see any deer.


Our evening hunt was spent overlooking a pretty area of sandhill country, but once again, the deer weren't cooperating. Temps in the 60's weren't helping any, I'm sure.



No luck for me after school on Monday, but a short hunt Tuesday evening produced this small 7-pt. for the freezer. This one and an 8-pt that was a little bit bigger came out 250 yards down the tree row I was in, but livestock and a farm house in the background made it a no-shoot situation until the deer moved. They slowly started to move my way and this one finally gave me the chance to put some meat in the freezer.


Friday I took time off to spend the day with Layne and we started it watching out over the same draw Grace and I watched last Sunday. We ended up seeing a small 4-pt buck at 8:45 am that came up out of the draw, but he didn't give us a shot. About 30 min. after that a very nice 8-pt buck came walking in at the very bottom of the draw and stepped into a small opening, but was facing us head-on at 150 yards and was down below us, so not a very good shot. He stayed like that for maybe 15-30 seconds at most. Layne was on him waiting for him to turn just a bit, but instead he put his head down and walked straight towards us, so all we would have had to shoot at was the top of his neck and back until he disappeared in the trees below us. Darn it.... Layne was disappointed to not get a shot, but very excited to see him and know he is there. We stayed a while to see if he would show again, but didn't see him, so I'm sure he bedded in the draw for the day. We backed out quietly hoping we might cross paths with him again this weekend. An evening hunt produced no deer sightings for me and a nice nap for Layne.

With the weather forecast for rain moving in for the weekend, Saturday morning was going to be our only hunt of the weekend, so we were hoping both Grace and Layne might get a chance...and things could not have worked out any better! Grace made a nice 100 yd. shot on this big doe (7mm-08 with 120 gr. BT - reduced recoil load of 25.0 gr. IMR 4759). There was a button buck with this doe, so once the doe was down Kelley filled her antlerless tag, too.



Meanwhile, Layne and I were 1/2 mile away watching our draw for HIS buck again. We had two does come in across the draw and Layne decided he was ok with a doe for the freezer. He was lining up for a broadside shot when the doe decided she had other plans and dropped down into the draw. Layne was disappointed, but I told him there were still deer around and our hunt wasn't over. About 15 minutes later we caught movement behind the trees across the draw...it was HIS buck! After about five anxious minutes it finally gave us a broadside chance at 165 yards. Layne was ready and harvested his second whitetail buck in two years! (Rem. 700 Varmint in 6mm Rem. shooting a 90 gr. Accubond - 40.0 gr. H380) In a bit of what felt like deja vu, Layne's buck dropped about 20 yards from where I got my buck last year, so we were then facing a similar drag back to the truck.

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After getting the buck back to our gear I stopped to wish Layne an early Merry Christmas...the rifle he has been practicing with and just used to take this buck is now his. I bought it as a project rifle as the stock has beautiful grain, but it needs to be refinished, so we will work on it together this winter. I added a new Buck knife because all deer hunters need a good knife, too.




Last night Layne put his new knife to use as both he and Grace helped Kelley and I get my deer in the freezer. Layne is now counting down as the first batch of jerky will be ready by breakfast tomorrow.




Busy week ahead to get these three deer in the freezer, then we will get back out in January during our antlerless season. I have two young men (a current student and a former student) who have not deer hunted before that would like to get out, so we will get some practice in over Christmas break and see if we can get them their first deer.

I'm blessed to have a family that enjoys all of this with me and we are thankful for the landowners who let us get out and enjoy time in the field together. There will be burger and jerky headed their way this week as a thank you.

I'm glad to have the chance to connect and share the fun with all of you here, too. Best wishes to all of you for a Merrry Christmas!

Dan

Outstanding, well done!

Getting the kids involved start to finish...EXCELLENT!

Congratulations

Congratulations all the way around

Dan,
You're very blessed. And I'm jealous of Layne's 6mm!

Sounds like you might need to ask santa for a bigger freezer.

great story and pictures, thanks for sharing.

Very fine!!

Dan,
Wonderful post - I look forward to this one showing each year. Looks like this year was another great one, congrats to you and your family!!

great hunt , congrats!!

Ed

Congratulations all the way around!!!!!!

A most excellent story of your family adventures. Many thanks for sharing them with us!!

Congrats to you all and have a Merry Christmas!

You all did very well the past couple days. Good Job!

Looks like another visit to the taxidermist with a very nice looking buck.

Congrats to you and your family. The pics and the story is one of the best family hunt stories I have read on this site.

Wayne

Great story and pictures...

Great thread Dan! Nicely done by all!

Thanks, guys. I will pass your congratulations on to the kids.

SKane, I am hoping Layne will still let me shoot his 6mm once in a while. It really is a nice-shooting rifle!

Simply outstanding.

Thanks for sharing bud.

Dave

Enjoyed the trip!! Thanks for sharing and congrats to all involved.

Opening day of the 2015 jerky season...Grace and Layne are both glad to help!

Spectacular is an understatement !!! Congratulation to all four of you; definitely a team effort involving everyone. Parents teaching and passing the hunting tradition to their children, that is picture perfect.

Awesome job to everyone! Keep it up, guys!

GREAT Post!

Very, very, well done!

Really cool adventure with the kiddos. Congrats to all.

Wow man excellent work!

WHAT A BUCK; I'm 40 and would LOVE a buck like that!

Thanks again, all. Lots of good memories from the weekend, that's for sure. Layne has been bouncing all over ever since.

efw - I picked the rifle up through an online auction and as far as I know it is simply a Rem. 700 BDL Varmint rifle, but the stock has above average wood and was one of the main reasons I picked it up. The scope is a Leupold VX-iii 4.5-14x40. I really like the 6mm Rem. and have a Ruger 77V in it, too. I haven't done very much load work with the 700 yet as one of the first batch of loads I tried with the 90 gr. Accubonds was shooting small groups, so last summer I loaded some up and let Layne start getting used to the rifle: (I wish I had let this video run just a little longer as after hearing the "clank" on the steel and seeing the target swinging in the scope he turned around with the biggest grin and said, "I want to do that again!"

[img]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w8/dkwhis/th_IMG_4082_zpsvhivcfww.mp4[/img]

Excellent story and pics!

Enjoyed your post, a memorable time with your family.

Great story !!

Love to see this kind of stuff.

Congratulations to the whole family.

Kids were excited to see our deer hunting adventure featured on today's Outdoor page in our local newspaper: (Turns out to be a fun and special present as today is Grace's 13th birthday!)




I appreciated the reporter's focus on family and carrying on the hunting tradition:
http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local...6b64c00-c6b8-5cb9-8aef-4c5fbb09a44e.html

Time to see if we can help welcome a new deer hunter to the ranks when our antlerless season opens next week...I'll update with another chapter when it happens!

Dan,

That's pretty cool! And a happy birthday to Grace.

Great thread!

AWESOME!

Big smile thread. One of the seasons best!!!!

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Yep !

Proud Dad -you're the man -great story and photo's -fine fine family you have there.
Mike

Happy New Year to all !

Excellent!!!

Dan, it's nice to see you and your family enjoying the great outdoors.
You said you are blessed, I think you are. I feel blessed too, being able to read such a great story.
Thank you very much.

Wishing you and your family a blessed New Year.

Somehow I missed this one originally, but Congrats on a job well done by all. Great stuff!

Thank you, guys. I will relay your compliments to the rest of the family. We enjoy our outdoor hunting and fishing adventures and hope sharing it encourages others to get out together, too.

Best wishes to all for another year of adventures and fun...Happy New Year!

Great report - Congrats to you and your family!

Very cool! congrats to all...