Well, what started out as a slow weekend ended up being a pretty good father/son hunting weekend.
We got back on my old lease in Houston County this year and was hoping to put some meat in the freezer and maybe find something to decorate the wall with as well. The lease is not very big but has been managed for several years. We protein feed during the off season and load up the corn feeders and food plots in late summer & early fall to keep all the deer well fed. This year started off slow as we have only been able to make it to the lease one time due to Harvey plugging up my work schedule. The 1st weekend we came up and sat in the bow blinds to see if Knothead (my son) could get him one with a crossbow. We only had a day and a half to hunt due to our hectic schedules but we went for it hoping for a shot at something. We saw a couple of young bucks the first morning and one decent 3yr old 8pt that needed at least one more year and didn't really present a shot anyway. The rest of the trip only resulted in seeing some hogs that we didn't get a shot at. It would be nearly 4 weeks before we could get back but I was planning on making it at least a 4-5 day hunt. I went up on a Thursday afternoon by myself and planned to pick Knothead up in Nacogdoches Friday night after the playoff game between Silsbee and Center. I only saw 2 deer between Thursday evening and Friday evening and wasn't feeling very positive for the weekend. Jump ahead to Saturday and after hunting that morning and evening and not seeing a single animal my hopes of shooting a deer much less seeing one were getting down and out. Well, all that changed with the cold front. Sunday morning we got to the stand, fired up the heater and right at daylight a deer shows up in the food plot. Knothead puts the scope on it and starts getting all excited because its a pretty good 8pt. I grab the binoculars to check it out and it is a god looking deer but looks like a young deer. Two does steps out and the buck starts chasing one around the field. Knothead says "as soon as he gets broadside, I'm gonna squeeze one off". With hesitation in my voice and head I told him that that is a young buck and although he looks good, it would be a better move to let him walk one more year. After he watches the deer run around the food plot for a minute or two, he, slowly brings the gun back down and in the stand and I could tell I messed up and shouldn't have said anything. But, he says "yep, he'll be bigger next year". A couple hours later we got down, went and got cleaned up and went to church, grabbed some lunch and planned our evening hunt. Knothead wanted to shoot some hogs so he we and sat on a designated popular hog stand and I went and sat at a stand hoping to shoot a doe. Well, I got lucky and got a doe and Knothead only saw a small buck. Monday was our last day to hunt, so we decided to got back to where we saw the 8pt chasing does to see if he or another buck would step out. After staying up late watching a couple of westerns, we were both sleepy and struggled to stay awake while hovering over the heater. At 7:18, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and threw the binoculars up to see a good buck walking across the food plot. I told Knothead it was a shooter and to my surprise he had his gun out the window and on him before he made it to the woods. I told him as soon as he presents a shot.....BOOM! After the smoke cleared I asked if he was laying down there, because I couldn't see from my angle, and he said no. I asked do you think you got him? And he said "well, I'm not sure....he threw his tail up and ran off". So I said we'll give him about 20-30 min and we'll go see. 5 minutes later we were walking to where he shot because we couldn't wait any longer. Me being color blind, I was looking for tracks when he asked, "what do you think this is" as he points at a chunk of bloody bone and meat. I said that's a good sign. He trailed the blood 50yds in the woods and found his buck piled up behind a pine tree. The high fives, woohoo's and shakes from excitement took over from there. We dragged him back out to the food plot and took a few pics. Turned out to be an awesome and memorable weekend for this father and son.
We got back on my old lease in Houston County this year and was hoping to put some meat in the freezer and maybe find something to decorate the wall with as well. The lease is not very big but has been managed for several years. We protein feed during the off season and load up the corn feeders and food plots in late summer & early fall to keep all the deer well fed. This year started off slow as we have only been able to make it to the lease one time due to Harvey plugging up my work schedule. The 1st weekend we came up and sat in the bow blinds to see if Knothead (my son) could get him one with a crossbow. We only had a day and a half to hunt due to our hectic schedules but we went for it hoping for a shot at something. We saw a couple of young bucks the first morning and one decent 3yr old 8pt that needed at least one more year and didn't really present a shot anyway. The rest of the trip only resulted in seeing some hogs that we didn't get a shot at. It would be nearly 4 weeks before we could get back but I was planning on making it at least a 4-5 day hunt. I went up on a Thursday afternoon by myself and planned to pick Knothead up in Nacogdoches Friday night after the playoff game between Silsbee and Center. I only saw 2 deer between Thursday evening and Friday evening and wasn't feeling very positive for the weekend. Jump ahead to Saturday and after hunting that morning and evening and not seeing a single animal my hopes of shooting a deer much less seeing one were getting down and out. Well, all that changed with the cold front. Sunday morning we got to the stand, fired up the heater and right at daylight a deer shows up in the food plot. Knothead puts the scope on it and starts getting all excited because its a pretty good 8pt. I grab the binoculars to check it out and it is a god looking deer but looks like a young deer. Two does steps out and the buck starts chasing one around the field. Knothead says "as soon as he gets broadside, I'm gonna squeeze one off". With hesitation in my voice and head I told him that that is a young buck and although he looks good, it would be a better move to let him walk one more year. After he watches the deer run around the food plot for a minute or two, he, slowly brings the gun back down and in the stand and I could tell I messed up and shouldn't have said anything. But, he says "yep, he'll be bigger next year". A couple hours later we got down, went and got cleaned up and went to church, grabbed some lunch and planned our evening hunt. Knothead wanted to shoot some hogs so he we and sat on a designated popular hog stand and I went and sat at a stand hoping to shoot a doe. Well, I got lucky and got a doe and Knothead only saw a small buck. Monday was our last day to hunt, so we decided to got back to where we saw the 8pt chasing does to see if he or another buck would step out. After staying up late watching a couple of westerns, we were both sleepy and struggled to stay awake while hovering over the heater. At 7:18, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and threw the binoculars up to see a good buck walking across the food plot. I told Knothead it was a shooter and to my surprise he had his gun out the window and on him before he made it to the woods. I told him as soon as he presents a shot.....BOOM! After the smoke cleared I asked if he was laying down there, because I couldn't see from my angle, and he said no. I asked do you think you got him? And he said "well, I'm not sure....he threw his tail up and ran off". So I said we'll give him about 20-30 min and we'll go see. 5 minutes later we were walking to where he shot because we couldn't wait any longer. Me being color blind, I was looking for tracks when he asked, "what do you think this is" as he points at a chunk of bloody bone and meat. I said that's a good sign. He trailed the blood 50yds in the woods and found his buck piled up behind a pine tree. The high fives, woohoo's and shakes from excitement took over from there. We dragged him back out to the food plot and took a few pics. Turned out to be an awesome and memorable weekend for this father and son.
Comment