Taylor Blackman is a 14 year old from Warren, Pennsylvania.

He shot his first deer while visiting South Carolina over Thanksgiving vacation. Taylor was hunting with me at Hamilton Ridge Hunt Club near Estill, SC when he shot this nice doe.





In accordance with tradition, Taylor was "blooded" while learning how to dress his doe. Later in the day he was lucky enough to shoot his second deer; another doe.





He used the experience as the subject of an English Essay when he returned to school after Thanksgiving. Here is the email he sent recently with the story of his hunt "in his own words."


Taylor Blackman
12/3/03
English essay


First Deer
It was a very cold and windy morning in Estill South Carolina. I was down there for Thanksgiving vacation and I had spent the whole time there hunting. I had not seen anything I could have shot there and it was my last day there so I was really hopeful on getting something. I ended up getting two deer that day. Those deer were my first deer I had ever shot.
That morning I woke up about 4 am and drove an hour to Hamilton Ridge the hunting club that I was hunting in. This club is 14,000 acres of private hunting land and was prime hunting for deer and wild hog. About 6 am I got into the stand and waved bye to my uncle Mark. As he drove off into the darkened forest I put my gloves on and threw my blanket over my legs for warmth. I sat there for a good hour and did not see anything.
Then at 9:30 I was very cold and hungry and I reached down in the deer blind I was in and got some sunflower seeds. As I looked up I noticed a nice sized doe just standing there eating the corn in the field. I slowly took my new rifle, which was a 7mm Remington magnum and aimed at the deer through my scope. I waited about 20 minutes for any other deer to come out. None came out so I started to line up my shot right on the deer�s upper shoulders. I shot the deer and with one shot it dropped.
I walked over toward the deer and I was still very cold. I noticed that the shot had not killed it but it had paralyzed it. So I pulled out my Browning knife and slit its throat. After that I put the knife away and dragged the deer to the bottom of my deer blind. After that I went back into my stand and sat and waited for my uncle mark to come back. He came back about 10:00 and picked me up.
After getting back to the main camp area I found my self arm deep in deer blood and guts. We dragged the deer into the gutting shed. I slit the hamstrings of the doe and put the hooks through them. Then I wheeled the deer up into the air so that it was hanging. I made a long straight cut down its belly exposing the chest cavity. I lower it onto the cutting table and then proceeded with my uncle marks help to skin the deer around its belly. To cut out the very gross details I had the deer gutted and skinned.
We went out for lunch after that at this really great restaurant called Gators. It had great southern cooking. I was not really that hungry mainly because I had the taste of deer blood in my mouth. I guess it is a tradition for most hunters that after they get there first deer the blood from that deer gets smeared on the hunters face.
After lunch we went back to the hunting club and took an hour and a half long nap. I woke-up very refreshed and ready for an afternoon of hunting. We drove out to the same field I was in that morning and once again I was in the stand and waved goodbye to my uncle Mark. I sat in the stand looking around and reading my NRA magazine. About 4:30 I looked up and noticed another doe eating corn at the end of the field. I focused my scope on the doe and once again I waited 20 minutes before firing to see if any other deer were around. None came out so I decided to fire. The shot broke the shoulder bones apart and created a baseball sized exist wound.
I dragged the deer over to my stand and waited about an hour for my uncle mark. About the time it got dark I got out of my stand and got all my stuff ready to leave. As I was waiting there I heard the sound of two wild hogs fighting. That sound is one of the worst and scariest sounds to hear in the dark woods. Shortly after that my uncle mark came and picked me up.
As I was gutting and skinning this rather small and young doe this little 12-year-old kid came in with a huge 8 point. Then there I was with this small doe it was pretty funny. We got the doe skinned and gutted and put in the back of his Land Rover with the other doe. We drove home and when we got to his house we took the deer out of the car and carved them up into about 26 pounds of venison.
That is the story of my first deer I killed. I think it was worth not seeing anything all week. Then on my last day I shot and killed two very nice but small doe. I can only hope I have good luck hunting here in Warren as I did in South Carolina. Two deer killed in one day is great for a first time deer hunter.

Hey uncle mark thanks for taking me out hunting I thought this might be better than a thank you card. So here it is an essay I had to do in English class on a moment in our lives I kind of made up a few details for school but its close to the real thing.
Thanks
Taylor

BTW, "Uncle Mark" is an honorary title. Taylor is the son of long-time family friends.

Take a kid hunting and pass along our great hunting heritage to the next generation!

FANTASTIC

I bet you couldn't be happier or prouder than if he was your own son. If he wrote something like that in the POLITICALLY KORRECT schools in most states, he probably would've been sent home. I'm happy for you and your nephew. By the way, what's the update on your little pal, Vijay?

475Guy, thankfully there's no need to worry about deer hunting stories being banned in a Pennsylvania classroom. Opening day of deer season is a school holiday in most of the state!

Vijay is in a spinal injury rehabilitation center at Craig Hospital in Denver. They expect that he will be there for at least 60 days undergoing physical rehabilitation and learning how to perform day to day tasks in a wheelchair.

I included a copy of the email he sent me recently in this thread:

http://www.accuratereloading.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=515061&page=4&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&fpart=1

If you have a minute, send him an email and tell him about your last hunting trip.

Good shooting young man on your doe harvest. You may want to consider placing your rifle so the a full view of the deer is not obstructed in your next picture. Now your hunting scrap book is started and you can relive all the hunts through the pictures you take. Good record keeping will make those hunting pictures priceless in the years to come for you. You may want the date and time of harvest on the back of each picture. Father time has a way of stealing your memory as the years race by.

Each hunting season will bring you new adventures to experience and pictures to add to your scapbook. Few things in life can equal the sights and sounds of the woods in the early morning light as the first hint of daylight began to break. The call of the Crow, the scream of the Blue Jay, the sound of the squirrels as they scamper from tree to tree. The tiny finch flits from limb to limb puffing up it's feasthers to fight the cold. The possum sneaking to it's den to warm it's self after a long night of forage. The wily fox seaking through the woods looking for it's next meal. The wood pecker tapping out it's message on every tree it lands on. Those sights and sounds are deer hunting in it's purist form.

Remember while in the field hunting, be safe, shoot straight, and always cherish the many wonders of nature.