Here is the story of me (36 now) and my dad’s first hunt. When I was young I could care less about hunting. Now that I hunt he was unable due to should/arm injuries. This year we set him up with a thumbhole stocked rifle and were able to hunt together.
11/5/2008
8:00pm me and Dad pull out heading to the swamp on our first hunting trip, His first in about 20 years.
8:01pm we see a little 4 point buck jump the road in front of us which adds to the excitement.
9:45pm after a good drive discussing all the game we were going to slay we arrived at the hotel, checked in and watched Rocky 3, getting to sleep about 11:00pm
11/6/2008
3:00am wake, shower, load up, and look for breakfast.
4:30am arrive at McDonalds to only find their drive through open. We swing through and order biscuits and mcmuffins to only be informed that they were still serving the lunch menu (what!) and breakfast did not start until 5:00am
4:45am not wanting cheeseburgers held over from the previous night we arrive at convenient store and got coffee, sodas, doughnuts, and beef jerky, you know the breakfast of champions.
5:00am arrive at DNR check in station, sign in and flip open cell to call buddy who was going to be our guide. Opps! I had deleted his number, so I go back to the sign in list to make sure he had not already been by, he hadn’t so we wait there.
5:20am Buddy shows up with the rest of the crew, they sign in and with daylight approaching quickly it seemed like a race to the back of the swamp.
5:45am after miles of service roads we arrive at our destination. Then we walk a closed service road to a clear cut and half the group went to the right and the half me and dad was with went to the left. Dad not being able to hold up for long hikes set up right there. After seeming like 5 miles of hiking I drop of from the pack and setup in a tree. The other two kept hiking and I lost sight of their flashlights soon.
6:00am it started breaking light and I had to re-adjust my stand so I was in a comfortable shooting position covering the firebreak I had came in on.
6:15am something caught my eye to my right, hey WT? I was 75-100 yards from our trucks. I guess we got turned around and followed the wrong firebreak.
6:20am BOOOOOOOM!, thought it may be dad
7:00am BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! This was definitely dad so the first was someone else in our group. This one almost made me pee my pants it was so loud in a quiet setting like this.
7:30am BOOOOOOOM!, same as first one so possibly 3 down deer.
8:05am One of the guys had made their way back to the trucks and was walking around (me and dad generally would sit until 10:30am-11:00am.) I figure my hunt was over so I come down.
8:10am all packed up I decided to walk back down the firebreak toward dad and see if he got anything.
8:11am after walking 15 yards and rounding a curve a big buck was starring me down. Dangit!! Should have waited in stand another 15 minutes!!!!. Anyway he ran.
8:20am still pissed and slumbering through everything making a racket walked up on another little buck funneling down the same fire break.
8:22am come out on the service road 50 yards from trucks but nowhere near where we went in at before daylight. Head to the trucks meet up with fellow hunter and discuss the morning so far.
8:30am start walking down the service road toward the clear cut. I find dad about 150 yards through the trees still in his stand with his back to us. I motioned for everybody to wait.
8:40am saw team 2 coming from the backside of the clear-cut and dad started his climb down out of the tree.
9:00am we were dragging my dad’s 6 point and a buddies 7 point and spike out of the woods.
We had great fellowship that day, went back in the evening but the score remained Dad:1 to Son:0. We headed home after sun down and are trying to decide when we will plan our next hunt.
Oh Yea sausage was returned from meat house today, tonight some will be on the grill!!!