A Long Time Coming

[TurkeyJay]

Awesome

 

[kmaxwell3]

Way to go guys. Hard work paid off!!

 

[Whit90]

Thanks yall. I was blessed and thankful I get to share that experience with him. He wants to got again this Sunday!

 

[ucfireman]

I have been trying to get my nephew a deer for a few years now. He only gets the chance to hunt a couple times a year, so we have been skunked a good many times on public land. We even went to my buddies property and sat over a corn pile and didnt see a thing.

Well, we FINALLY got him one this past Sunday.

Here's the story:

We pulled up to a public spot at 6am. We didn't waste any time getting our stuff ready and heading in towards our spot. I haven't had any time to scout this year, so we were going in blind based off of some map scouting. I didn't really have any expectations at all, but knew that you just never know what could happen this time of year. We saw three deer on the way in while it was dark. They did not spook, which was encouraging. We got to our spot about 6:45. We set up with a planted pine thicket to our left and hard woods to our right with a cross wind coming from the pines. I was hoping that maybe a buck would cruse the edge of the pines smelling for does. We were hunting off of the ground, so while it was still dark I brushed us in really well. It was a great setup and I was feeling good about it. It got light and we heard some turkeys fly down, which he had never heard before. We did a little rattling and sat still until about 9:30. Nothing... It had rained the night before so we had good walking conditions. So we made a plan to still hunt down the edge of the thicket towards the river to see if we could find any fresh sign, which we didnt find much of. We finally made it down to the river where it opened up pretty good. There was still a lot of thicket edge visible from where we were, so we setup facing the thicket, with the river about 30 yards behind us. We did some grunting and rattling in hopes of pulling a buck out of the thicket. About 10 minutes went by and we started loosing hope and making another plan. Then we heard a loud, odd sounding thud from the other side of the river. I couldn't figure out what the sound was. It didn't sound like a tree falling, and I didn't hear any water. Then we heard it again. So I said, "lets go look and see what's going on." Before we got up I heard the unmistakable sound and rhythm of a deer taking a few steps, on what sounded like rock in the river. I realized then that the sounds we were hearing was a deer swimming/jumping through the river to come investigate the buck fight he had just heard. I told Cam, "THATS A DEER, TURN AROUND!" We franticly got turned around to face the river. As soon as Cam got the rifle on his shoulder a buck popped over the river bank. The buck immediately spotted us and froze, slightly quartered away. I franticly coached Cam to take the safety off, take his time, and pull the trigger when he was ready. Cam settled in and BAM! The buck dropped! We were both so pumped. We couldn't believe that it had finally happened. My prayers were answered that morning!

We both got a kick out of the fact that this small buck felt the need swim a river to come checkout what (to me) sounded like a pretty rough and rowdy buck fight. I know he was just curious, and I am glad he was.

We were a mile in were we shot him. We quartered him up and packed him out. It was a great morning!

Here he is in all of his glory!View attachment 1186810

Great story. Its a lot of fun when it works.
I have rattled in 2 deer. Both about 25 years ago in SC. The first was a nice 7pt came running in before the "fight" was over. ( I broke the rattling horns hitting them together and about broke my thumb) Buddy shot him while he was coming and about 10 feet in front of him, he (buddy) was about 20 feet in front of me. I was looking the other way and thought I had been shot, about scared me to death.
The other one was a huge buck that just wondered in real slow. Same weekend as the 1st just different area. I couldn't get the gun up without him seeing me and he was gone in no time.

 

[Mason Jar]

Nice Buck, Congratulations !!!

 

[slow motion]

Congratulations to your nephew. Beautiful buck

 

[antharper]

Man what a great hunt and story ! Congrats to you both and good job getting that young man in the woods ! Hopefully a hunting partner for life

 

[Jimmack]

Thats AWESOME! Congrats yall!!

 

[uturn]

Congratulations to you both!

A tip of the hat to ya on taking the time and effort to take a youngen to the deer woods!!

Great hunt, buck and story!

PS. He looks like you too!

 

[Whit90]

Congratulations to you both!

A tip of the hat to ya on taking the time and effort to take a youngen to the deer woods!!

Great hunt, buck and story!

PS. He looks like you too!

Ha yea, his dad and I are 10 years apart and we could almost pass for twins.

 

[DynamicDennis]

That's the ticket man, keep them kids in the woods. Glad he stuck with it until you all were able to connect. And on public ground at that, nicely done sir's.

 

[Whit90]

That's the ticket man, keep them kids in the woods. Glad he stuck with it until you all were able to connect. And on public ground at that, nicely done sir's.

Thanks. I’m surprised he stuck with it as long as he did without killing one, honestly. But as he’s matured over the last couple of years he’s gotten to where he’s pretty dedicated to anything he does.

 

[cracker4112]

Well that was a fine story! Congratulations to you both and here’s to many more.