Klay's First Deer
- Thread starter cotty16
- Start date
ImpalaSSpeed96
Junior Member
twireman
Senior Member
Schu72
Well-Known Member
This story kind of begins during last year's muzzy season. We were hunting out of a blind in the same area and a little 4 point fed in front of us for about 20 minutes. Some of you may remember a "bad dad" moment in which I wouldn't let Klay shoot because the buck was too small. He was royally ticked off at me for about 3 days for making him pass and i swore I'd never let myself make his shooting decision again in regard to his first deer.
Fast forward to this season...
Klay had a hand in every aspect of this deer harvest. He helped put in the food plot we were hunting over. He helped hang the buddy stand we would be sitting in and he helped trim shooting lanes. More to come on his role in the harvest...
We arrived a little late, but it was a foggy morning, so we were able to sneak in quietly and only bumped one deer which remained anonymous by showing only its tail. We climbed up into the buddy stand about 7:05 and settled in. I handed Klay my phone so he could entertain himself with some Angry Birds, which lasted about 15 minutes before that wasn't good enough. We sat there and whispered to each other about possible shot opportunites, noises we heard, and life in general. At about 8:00 we do a time check and he says, "how about 8:30 we get going because I don;t want rushed for my football game". I told him we would see what's up at that point. My plan was to only sit until 9:00 anyway to get him changed for his game as today was the first day of Flag Football season.
A couple minutes later, just across the plot (which I range found to be 35 yards), the buck appeared. "Hey, looky there", I whispered. Immediately, after we identified him to be a buck, Klay starts asking to shoot him. I put the range finder on him and it's at 33 yards.
Enter bad dad...
I began discussing with him how we have some bigger bucks that I'd like for him to have a chance at and he begins begging me to shoot. My mind instantly goes back to last muzzy season. I look at him and he's hanging his head. At that moment I realized it's about him, not me. Not what I want for him, but what he wants for himself. The crossbow is resting on my leg and the shooting rail. I slowly slide it over to him and tell him, "if this is the buck you want want, go for it buddy. You've practiced for this... make it count."
He smiles...
He steadies the crossbow, waits and waits, then whispers, "can you move over a bit?" At this point I am squeezed into the corner as far as I can get. I slide my right arm behind me as far as I can get it and hold the binos (I wish it were my recorder) in my left hand to watch for impact. He squeezes in closer to me and pauses... then shoots. I see the deer immediately jump and whirl and arrow is in the right spot. Unfortunately I didn;t see the impact because I jumped when he shot. Lol
Klay starts fist pumping right after the shot and saying "YES! YES! YES!" Then he stops, looks at me and says "Did I get him?"
I laughed and said, "helluva shot buddy".
We call Pap (old scout) and tell him the good news and he's on his way. We give it about 10 minutes and then get down to look for blood at the impact spot. We get there and it's everywhere. We follow the trail a little ways over the hill and there are pools of blood. As we progressed we lost the trail a few times, but each time either myself or Klay found new blood. Towards the last part of the trail it was all Klay (thus cementing his final role in the deer). He was like a bloodhound, "there's blood, there's blood, more here..."
To be honest, I had a hard time seeing the blood he was finding, but it was blood. Each time he would reach down and put his finger in it and show me. Pap showed up about halfway through our track job and we finally encountered Klay's buck laying in the creek bottom. As soon as I said "there he is" and pointed, he sprinted down the hill to it. Man, was he fired up!
We took our hero shots of him and got the deer back up the hill. Needless to say I'm a proud papa, my dad is a proud Pap, and Klay is a proud deer hunter. I think he's hooked!
Klay went from planting the plot, to hanging the stand, to putting a perfect shot, to leading the track job. I'm damn proud, to say the least.
Thank God I didn't have another bad dad moment.
Fast forward to this season...
Klay had a hand in every aspect of this deer harvest. He helped put in the food plot we were hunting over. He helped hang the buddy stand we would be sitting in and he helped trim shooting lanes. More to come on his role in the harvest...
We arrived a little late, but it was a foggy morning, so we were able to sneak in quietly and only bumped one deer which remained anonymous by showing only its tail. We climbed up into the buddy stand about 7:05 and settled in. I handed Klay my phone so he could entertain himself with some Angry Birds, which lasted about 15 minutes before that wasn't good enough. We sat there and whispered to each other about possible shot opportunites, noises we heard, and life in general. At about 8:00 we do a time check and he says, "how about 8:30 we get going because I don;t want rushed for my football game". I told him we would see what's up at that point. My plan was to only sit until 9:00 anyway to get him changed for his game as today was the first day of Flag Football season.
A couple minutes later, just across the plot (which I range found to be 35 yards), the buck appeared. "Hey, looky there", I whispered. Immediately, after we identified him to be a buck, Klay starts asking to shoot him. I put the range finder on him and it's at 33 yards.
Enter bad dad...
I began discussing with him how we have some bigger bucks that I'd like for him to have a chance at and he begins begging me to shoot. My mind instantly goes back to last muzzy season. I look at him and he's hanging his head. At that moment I realized it's about him, not me. Not what I want for him, but what he wants for himself. The crossbow is resting on my leg and the shooting rail. I slowly slide it over to him and tell him, "if this is the buck you want want, go for it buddy. You've practiced for this... make it count."
He smiles...
He steadies the crossbow, waits and waits, then whispers, "can you move over a bit?" At this point I am squeezed into the corner as far as I can get. I slide my right arm behind me as far as I can get it and hold the binos (I wish it were my recorder) in my left hand to watch for impact. He squeezes in closer to me and pauses... then shoots. I see the deer immediately jump and whirl and arrow is in the right spot. Unfortunately I didn;t see the impact because I jumped when he shot. Lol
Klay starts fist pumping right after the shot and saying "YES! YES! YES!" Then he stops, looks at me and says "Did I get him?"
I laughed and said, "helluva shot buddy".
We call Pap (old scout) and tell him the good news and he's on his way. We give it about 10 minutes and then get down to look for blood at the impact spot. We get there and it's everywhere. We follow the trail a little ways over the hill and there are pools of blood. As we progressed we lost the trail a few times, but each time either myself or Klay found new blood. Towards the last part of the trail it was all Klay (thus cementing his final role in the deer). He was like a bloodhound, "there's blood, there's blood, more here..."
To be honest, I had a hard time seeing the blood he was finding, but it was blood. Each time he would reach down and put his finger in it and show me. Pap showed up about halfway through our track job and we finally encountered Klay's buck laying in the creek bottom. As soon as I said "there he is" and pointed, he sprinted down the hill to it. Man, was he fired up!
We took our hero shots of him and got the deer back up the hill. Needless to say I'm a proud papa, my dad is a proud Pap, and Klay is a proud deer hunter. I think he's hooked!
Klay went from planting the plot, to hanging the stand, to putting a perfect shot, to leading the track job. I'm damn proud, to say the least.
Thank God I didn't have another bad dad moment.
Great write up Mike felt like I was there with you..... way cool too be there with him for his first....
1hornwilly
*Supporting Member III*
Excellent read Mike! It's a proud moment for all who read this I'm sure! Great job Cottis family!
rossbows
Junior Member
Archertl
Senior Member
Man, that is great Mike! Congrats Klay on your first deer buddy, and on making a great shot! I love first deer stories!
