What a super slow weekend. Slowest I have ever witnessed on our ranch. Acorns are down, grass is green, it was a full moon, it was humid. Kinda hard to see deer in this weather. However, it is opening weekend so we were there to have some fun.
Started off the opening morning Hunting with my oldest Son Hunter. He is after a Deer we call Lopside. A giant 8. He is not a super predictable deer but only really goes to one set. So we were in there early. We did have a shooter come in. A Big 10 with a kicker that is 7 or 8 years old. He was just not what we were looking for. That is all we saw. Mid day on Sat my youngest Son Chase asked if he could go hunting this evening. Chase has taken one deer in his life. He is 15 and is an absolute joy to be around. He just never really showed a lot of desire to hunt. So I never pushed him to do it. So when we would go to ranch, I would ask every time if he wanted to hunt. Usually he said no and hung out with his grandparents. No big deal I know it is not for everyone. But he does have to go to the ranch. Grandparents need to see their grand kids.
He killed a deer when he was 9. That was the last time he really cared about hunting. He has sat in the blind with me on occasion but just to watch me hunt. So when he asked if he could go I asked if we should take the crossbow. He said yes. So I knew something changed in his mind and I got really excited.
Told older boy he would be solo for Sat evening and that me and Chase would be hunting. He was very happen to hear Chase was wanting to hunt. We settled in a blind that has always been good to us. But with the weather being as hot as it was, I was not expecting to see a ton of deer but knew we would see something. After about an hour of staring at a feeder pen with corn all over the ground from previous spins, Feeder spun again. You always hope they just run in. Not the case today. Sat another 30 minutes before we saw a deer. 2 in fact. Both Buck, both shooters. One is a big buck the other is a big management deer. I asked Chase what he thought about that deer. He said he was huge.. I am pretty sure he was thinking no way Dad was letting me shoot that buck. Then I moved the tripod that he uses to hold the cross bow to in front of him. At that moment he knew I was ok with it and he smiled ear to ear. Then the smile went to heavy breathing and nervousness.
The Buck made his way into the feeder pen and started eating. Once in the pen it took some time for him to get quartering away. Once he got to where we needed him Chase was on the trigger and arrow was away. The hit looked really good. Crossbows are so fast it is hard to tell but I did buy a lighted knock to make it easier. We were able to watch him run off ans slow down at about 80 yards and walk into some think brush. We watched it back on video and slow mow and it looked like a solid heart shot. Right behind this shoulder and out the other leg. Not super low, but not super high either. We waited about 25-30 min and walked over quite to where we saw him disappear into the brush. That is when the wheels fell off.
I walk about a large oak tree and come face to face with this deer. He is sitting there staring at me. He jumps up and runs off. What the heck. No way he is alive, but yet there he is running away. We back out. Come back in 3 hours later and find that he had run another 300+ yards and jumped off me and onto the neighbor. He died on the run just on the other side of the fence. I had texted my neighbor once he jumped up and ran his way. Just in case he made it their. My neighbor is a good guy and said he is not there but feel free to cross and good luck finding him. I do not understand with the hit how he was alive much less run that far. When I cleaned the deer I do not gut them anymore so I did not look inside to see what he hit. It was 1 in the morning by the time I was cleaning so was not interested.
Anyway, very happy for my Son and proud of him. Hope he continues to hunt. I know I will always ask him to hunt. No better way to bond with your kids than to be in the woods with them.. .
By the way, Son likes Taylor Swift and we did not have great Blood, so that is why I chose this song..
Video-
Hope you enjoyed.
Started off the opening morning Hunting with my oldest Son Hunter. He is after a Deer we call Lopside. A giant 8. He is not a super predictable deer but only really goes to one set. So we were in there early. We did have a shooter come in. A Big 10 with a kicker that is 7 or 8 years old. He was just not what we were looking for. That is all we saw. Mid day on Sat my youngest Son Chase asked if he could go hunting this evening. Chase has taken one deer in his life. He is 15 and is an absolute joy to be around. He just never really showed a lot of desire to hunt. So I never pushed him to do it. So when we would go to ranch, I would ask every time if he wanted to hunt. Usually he said no and hung out with his grandparents. No big deal I know it is not for everyone. But he does have to go to the ranch. Grandparents need to see their grand kids.
He killed a deer when he was 9. That was the last time he really cared about hunting. He has sat in the blind with me on occasion but just to watch me hunt. So when he asked if he could go I asked if we should take the crossbow. He said yes. So I knew something changed in his mind and I got really excited. Told older boy he would be solo for Sat evening and that me and Chase would be hunting. He was very happen to hear Chase was wanting to hunt. We settled in a blind that has always been good to us. But with the weather being as hot as it was, I was not expecting to see a ton of deer but knew we would see something. After about an hour of staring at a feeder pen with corn all over the ground from previous spins, Feeder spun again. You always hope they just run in. Not the case today. Sat another 30 minutes before we saw a deer. 2 in fact. Both Buck, both shooters. One is a big buck the other is a big management deer. I asked Chase what he thought about that deer. He said he was huge.. I am pretty sure he was thinking no way Dad was letting me shoot that buck. Then I moved the tripod that he uses to hold the cross bow to in front of him. At that moment he knew I was ok with it and he smiled ear to ear. Then the smile went to heavy breathing and nervousness.
The Buck made his way into the feeder pen and started eating. Once in the pen it took some time for him to get quartering away. Once he got to where we needed him Chase was on the trigger and arrow was away. The hit looked really good. Crossbows are so fast it is hard to tell but I did buy a lighted knock to make it easier. We were able to watch him run off ans slow down at about 80 yards and walk into some think brush. We watched it back on video and slow mow and it looked like a solid heart shot. Right behind this shoulder and out the other leg. Not super low, but not super high either. We waited about 25-30 min and walked over quite to where we saw him disappear into the brush. That is when the wheels fell off.
I walk about a large oak tree and come face to face with this deer. He is sitting there staring at me. He jumps up and runs off. What the heck. No way he is alive, but yet there he is running away. We back out. Come back in 3 hours later and find that he had run another 300+ yards and jumped off me and onto the neighbor. He died on the run just on the other side of the fence. I had texted my neighbor once he jumped up and ran his way. Just in case he made it their. My neighbor is a good guy and said he is not there but feel free to cross and good luck finding him. I do not understand with the hit how he was alive much less run that far. When I cleaned the deer I do not gut them anymore so I did not look inside to see what he hit. It was 1 in the morning by the time I was cleaning so was not interested.
Anyway, very happy for my Son and proud of him. Hope he continues to hunt. I know I will always ask him to hunt. No better way to bond with your kids than to be in the woods with them.. .
By the way, Son likes Taylor Swift and we did not have great Blood, so that is why I chose this song..
Video-
Hope you enjoyed.
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