My son was selected for a youth hunt this past weekend at Shanklin Hole Ranch about a half an hour south of Junction. It was a beautiful ranch with some amazing landowners and volunteers. We arrived Friday afternoon and did some shooting to make sure everyone's rifle was sighted in. There were 5 kids on the hunt and 3 were brand new hunters who had never harvested an animal. Noah was the oldest and most experienced hunter in the group.
Mature whitetail doe were on the menu. The first morning we passed on a few whitetail doe because our size scale was skewed as we were looking at some big bodies axis bucks along with them. However, during the afternoon hunt, we had a good WT doe come out and he took her. She bowed up and ran under an oak tree and we saw he die.
That evening the landowner said for him to shoot another whitetail doe/spike or even a axis doe if we saw one. We had seen lots of axis really good bucks on day one, but no doe. The final morning of the hunt, the landowner told Noah that he could shoot a hard horned spike axis if we saw one as well because no other hunter had connected on a shot and they really needed some deer killed.
At daylight a group of 5 axis bucks walked and started feeding on an alfalfa bale. They fed a while then walked off. We still had time before legal/approved shooting light and the feeder had not gone off yet. At 7:15am the feeder goes off, the axis return, and another deer started coming in from behind the feeder and it was an axis doe! Suddenly, they all look our direction and a flock of about 40 turkey swoop in.
The axis scattered and the turkey mopped up all the corn. Fortunately though, the landowner has the feeder set to go off twice a few minutes apart. The axis returned for the second feeding and the doe was with them. We waited for her to clear and Noah put one in her shoulder. She took about 10 steps and piled up under a cedar tree.
One really cool thing we got to see during the day on Saturday were these wagon tracks that are worn into the stone river bottom from the early settlers.
We had an amazing time, ate lots of great food, and met some really awesome people.
Mature whitetail doe were on the menu. The first morning we passed on a few whitetail doe because our size scale was skewed as we were looking at some big bodies axis bucks along with them. However, during the afternoon hunt, we had a good WT doe come out and he took her. She bowed up and ran under an oak tree and we saw he die.
That evening the landowner said for him to shoot another whitetail doe/spike or even a axis doe if we saw one. We had seen lots of axis really good bucks on day one, but no doe. The final morning of the hunt, the landowner told Noah that he could shoot a hard horned spike axis if we saw one as well because no other hunter had connected on a shot and they really needed some deer killed.
At daylight a group of 5 axis bucks walked and started feeding on an alfalfa bale. They fed a while then walked off. We still had time before legal/approved shooting light and the feeder had not gone off yet. At 7:15am the feeder goes off, the axis return, and another deer started coming in from behind the feeder and it was an axis doe! Suddenly, they all look our direction and a flock of about 40 turkey swoop in.
The axis scattered and the turkey mopped up all the corn. Fortunately though, the landowner has the feeder set to go off twice a few minutes apart. The axis returned for the second feeding and the doe was with them. We waited for her to clear and Noah put one in her shoulder. She took about 10 steps and piled up under a cedar tree.
One really cool thing we got to see during the day on Saturday were these wagon tracks that are worn into the stone river bottom from the early settlers.
We had an amazing time, ate lots of great food, and met some really awesome people.
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