About20 years ago on a pretty good Thanksgiving Day winter storm my dad and I went out bow hunting. Little did I knowthat he was not going to be sitting in the bow stand like i was. I was sitting in my stand about 12 feet up or so looking at all the snow coming down when all of a sudden I heard a bunch of noise to my right. Right awayIJump up off my seat and grab my bow, here to my suprise comes a doe and 2 fawns. My heart went crazy, (I was 14 at the time of this)I slowly brought my bow up (compound at the time) and picked the closest deer to shoot, i didn't care what it was. It happened to be a button buck. I let the arrow fly and I drilled him perfect. He ran 15 yards or so and ran into a tree and fell right over. It was only my second deer ever shot with a bow, my second deer period with anything at the time! About 15 minutes after this 2 beautifull 10 points showed there face at about 15 yards or so away from me trying to find where that doe was that had just come through before this. Both of these bucks were 135 to 140" class bucks and i couldn't do a thing but look at them being my tag was just filled. As it was getting time to get off the stand I could here my dad coming through the woods to pick me up and when he approached my stand he seen the fawn laying there, he was pumped!We loaded up the deer and on the way homedad preceded to tell me that after he dropped me off in the stand he went back out of the woods and went to a fairly big willow patch of tree's and grassthatwasabout 3 acres in size and he slowly walked through it hoping to push some deer in my direction. He just about crapped his pants when i told him i had 2 bookers at 15 yards after i shot the button buck. Needless to say we have carried this tradition onthrough out the years for the most part on Thanksgiving. Its been a few years since we have done it again, he now lives 4.5 hours north of me, makes it a little tough to do every year! I've paid the favor back to him a few times as well as i've done little drives to him and he's had successas well. I sure miss the good old days when me and the old man got together and did this, just the 2 of us! Moral of the story is enjoy every bit of time you can with your family out in the woods doing what me and my dad did. I'm 33 years old now and everytime Thanksgiving comes around thats the first thing that pops in my head and i even get a little lump in the throat thinking about it. My dad is and always will be my favorite hunting buddy in the woods weather were deer, bear, or elk hunting, he's the man!!! Love ya dad!!!!

Great thread. I had no bowhunting mentor....other than you guys. I'm trying to establish the tradition with my son (we've been out the last two years), but he's got the 2-legged DEAR on his mind, now. We won't be going out together, tomorrow. He hasn't shot his bow in months.

Kudos to all you guys getting out with your families. I'll be with mine for most of the day at the house......but I'll try to be in the woods, tomorrow afternoon.....weather permitting.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

And the best gift you could give him is to print out your post and give it to him privately after dinner.

Great post! I hunt pretty much every weekend with my dad and brothers and by the end of the season I need a little space but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Great idea GR8! I won't be seeing him this year during Thanksgiving but I do plan on going up there before the end of the year to hopefully get myself a doe with the management tag. Thanks for the idea, i'll give it to him then.