Keithw247
Active Member
Spent a great weekend with my 7 year old son, my dad and my brother and a few friends at our hunting property. Recently just finished a cabin on the property and this was our first weekend to stay in it. Overall it was a slow weekend of hunting with very few sightings but we had great time and ate like kings.
My son is 7 and I've taken him to the stand once or twice over the last two years. The first time we had about 20 turkeys come into the field just after we got in the stand and he loved watching them. The next sit nothing happened and he got bored quick and he has difficulty sitting still (like most 7 year olds I reckon). So this year I put up a tent blind to conceal his movements better.
We sat Friday evening for about an hour and a half and didn't see a thing. He did surprisingly well considering it was a boring sit. We got up and hunted Saturday morning. After 10 minutes in blind he's hungry and he won't let up. We stick it out for about an hour then head back to cabin for some breakfast. As much as I wanted to stay in the blind I want the experience for him to be fun, not miserable so he will want to keep doing it.
Saturday evening we sit and he's doing great, sitting pretty still, not complaining about anything. After about an hour I look up and see a deer in the middle of the road about 200-250 yards away standing broadside. I look through my binos and it's a big doe. I told my son to look at it and put my barrel up on my shooting stick and put the crosshairs on her. I've never shot at a deer over 100 yards although my gun is zeroed at 200 and since I don't know the exact yardage I'm concerned about the drop if longer than 200 yards so I keep watching her through the scope trying to make a decision. After a few seconds she made it for me when she turned and started walking down the road away from me. I pulled my gun down and my son asked why I didn't shoot it. I told him it was a long shot and I just wasn't comfortable with it. I'm thinking I really don't want to miss a deer or make a bad shot and not find the deer with my son in the stand.
My son is not accepting my answer and keeps telling me I should have shot that deer. I tell him we've still got time before dark and hopefully something will come out closer. About 30 minutes later, thankfully, a nice doe came walking in to the corn pile about 100 yards in front of us with a perfect broadside pose. I put my gun back up on the stick and told my son to cover his ears. I made a good shot and she dropped where she was standing. My son was so excited and wanted to run down and look at it. I told him to wait a few minutes (to make sure she was dead). We got to the deer and I've never seen him so excited. I took this picture of him with the deer and going to get it framed and put on wall of cabin.
When we got back to the cabin with that deer you would have thought he killed it as he told the story to my family and friends. It was a great experience that I won't ever forget and I look forward to the day I watch him shoot his first deer.
My son is 7 and I've taken him to the stand once or twice over the last two years. The first time we had about 20 turkeys come into the field just after we got in the stand and he loved watching them. The next sit nothing happened and he got bored quick and he has difficulty sitting still (like most 7 year olds I reckon). So this year I put up a tent blind to conceal his movements better.
We sat Friday evening for about an hour and a half and didn't see a thing. He did surprisingly well considering it was a boring sit. We got up and hunted Saturday morning. After 10 minutes in blind he's hungry and he won't let up. We stick it out for about an hour then head back to cabin for some breakfast. As much as I wanted to stay in the blind I want the experience for him to be fun, not miserable so he will want to keep doing it.
Saturday evening we sit and he's doing great, sitting pretty still, not complaining about anything. After about an hour I look up and see a deer in the middle of the road about 200-250 yards away standing broadside. I look through my binos and it's a big doe. I told my son to look at it and put my barrel up on my shooting stick and put the crosshairs on her. I've never shot at a deer over 100 yards although my gun is zeroed at 200 and since I don't know the exact yardage I'm concerned about the drop if longer than 200 yards so I keep watching her through the scope trying to make a decision. After a few seconds she made it for me when she turned and started walking down the road away from me. I pulled my gun down and my son asked why I didn't shoot it. I told him it was a long shot and I just wasn't comfortable with it. I'm thinking I really don't want to miss a deer or make a bad shot and not find the deer with my son in the stand.
My son is not accepting my answer and keeps telling me I should have shot that deer. I tell him we've still got time before dark and hopefully something will come out closer. About 30 minutes later, thankfully, a nice doe came walking in to the corn pile about 100 yards in front of us with a perfect broadside pose. I put my gun back up on the stick and told my son to cover his ears. I made a good shot and she dropped where she was standing. My son was so excited and wanted to run down and look at it. I told him to wait a few minutes (to make sure she was dead). We got to the deer and I've never seen him so excited. I took this picture of him with the deer and going to get it framed and put on wall of cabin.
When we got back to the cabin with that deer you would have thought he killed it as he told the story to my family and friends. It was a great experience that I won't ever forget and I look forward to the day I watch him shoot his first deer.
