I got to take my son hunting and he got his first ever deer. A nice 2 year old doe on our friends farm in Southern Illinois. He went last year for the first time and shot a big doe but we couldn't find it. Darkness set in so we marked the last blood we found and decided to come back the next morning. Unfortunatly we got two inches of snow so we lost the blood trail. We did a grid search and never found it. So, this past Saturday we was hunting Pope County and seen a total of 9 deer all does and fawns. He shot the largest doe with my CVA Wolf at about 80 yards. He had been shooting my 870 slug gun but I thougt 80 yards was out of his range with the slug gun. He hadn't practiced that much past 50 yards. I seen the deer run about 60 yards and heard it crash in the leaves and thicket along the field we was hunting so I knew we wouldn't have a hard time finding it. I let him walk out to where the deer was when he shot and I stayed in the backround as he found blood and tracked it. I actually seen it 40 yards away just inside the thicket but wanted to watch him get more excited at the blood he was finding. Being the proud papa I was just as excited as he was. He's not some 8-14 year old kid. He's 21 now but due to football since he was 5 years old all through high school and going to college he's never took up hunting at all until last year. Now all he talks about is getting his own muzzleloader or slug gun. I was pretty proud to be with him at that moment. Here's his doe, sorry I rambled on......

Never too old to start. I was kindof the same way as he, too "busy" to go deer hunting with dad, and I don't recall him ever encouraging me to go. By the time I deer hunted with dad he'd just about decided to give it up (and since has). Only deer hunted with him for one season. It's too bad, but I've tried to get him to go again but he'd rather just buy a side of beef than a deer tag. I will try not to make the same mistake with my three kids. I'm going to encourage them to want to hunt, and when they're old enough, and if they want to go, I'll definitely take them. My almost 5 year old (in Jan) daughter and 2.5 year old son both went to see the buck I shot this year. I thought that they'd be a little freaked out seeing a gutted deer hanging up, but they both wanted to touch it and asked a bunch of questions about it. Then my daughter told me that she wanted to kill a deer, but didn't want to touch the blood. Since she's my little girl, I told her that was ok by me.

Mike

Congratulations to your son on his first deer. Nice going there.

Congrats on the first one. If I ever lose the feeling that comes over one when you get one, I will never hunt again. He is hooked now.

Congrats to your son on his first deer.

congrats to your son on his first

Tell him congrats! Never to old to start.

Congrats. He sure does look like a happy camper.

sjsfire


Tried to lighten up the picture for better visabilty... hope you do not mind...

And congrats to the hunter... He looks pretty pleased!

Offensive or defensive player?

Thanks, He actually played offense but went in on extra points and when the other team got to their 20 yard line he played defence. His team played in the 2006 state championship game class 3A but got beat.