Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
Apparently this is the look of boys who have been asking to go hunting for months (shrugs).
I stepped out a bit and didn't hunt opening day. I know, I know. That's sacrilege and all, especially in the state of Alabama. Bbbbbuuutttt....I was on fish, it was gonna be 60 degrees and someone was holding a tournament. I won't go into all of it, just go read about the fishing trip by clicking the link below.
But, I promised the boys I would take them out. Now, part of me believed that the reason they wanted to go was because they actually wanted to hunt. After all, we had a successful trip last year, which you can read about in the link below.
And, to be fair to me, they DID say how they wanted to shoot one and eat it. But deep down, I thought, maybe, it was just because they knew I would likely let them bring their tablets and play all afternoon in order to keep them still and quiet. So, just to be sure, I didn't let them bring any tablets. Just some snacks.
Yeah, so, it was about what I expected.
I spent more time yelling. "Sit down, be quiet! Quit fighting! No, you can't have my phone!"
I tried to explain to them that we had to go at 2PM, even though the deer wouldn't come out until much later, because we needed to get quiet and let any trace of our arrival blend in. If we continued to be loud and move around, we would wreck any chances of seeing a deer, much less shoot one. It would waste all this HORRIBLE TIME WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY!
In the back of my mind, I secretly wondered if this was the reason that I never saw any deer when I hunted with my dad and granddad. I was probably 13 before I actually had any legitimate shot at killing a deer.
By 4:30, we had seen a few coyotes but that was it and I was beginning to wonder if we were just too loud, too jittery, and too smelly for the deer, despite taking what precautions I could. The boys were absolutely miserable and I was pretty stressed out myself.
Eventually a doe came out and I waited several minutes to let the boys know. She was behind a tree, anyway, and the only reason I had seen her was because I was scanning with the binoculars. When she came clear of the tree, I let the boys know. I had no intentions of shooting the doe because there had been a big buck in the area and I was going to be patient.
The boys stood up into the window, naturally sticking their heads completely through the window itself. They finally got excited, but excited meant a lot of movement and a louder voices. She picked up that something was wrong and became spooked.
I had a choice to make. Shoot her on the run or call it a day. Considering that the boys don't go with me very often and how few chances we would have to kill a deer (crucial to getting kids interested in the sport) I went for it.
That meant throwing the rifle up, pushing kids down and telling them to get their ear muffs on, and rushing a shot at a running deer.
When the smoke cleared, she was still running. That was a bad sign as I've never had a deer run for more than a few feet. When she disappeared into the thick, my heart sank. Not just because of the fear that I missed, but that I might have injured her, judging by how she was running.
Even worse.....I have no tracking skills. I've never had to use them. But Griffin was excited about the possibility of tracking.
I had an entrance point into the thick stuff, but I couldn't see anything. That was probably because it was getting dark and my confidence was going down faster than the sun.
"BLOODSIGN!" Griffin yelled.
No way. Surely it was just a red leaf. But no, he was right! He found some blood!
Using his sharp eyes, we tracked her down!
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