So I pick up my olderst daughter from school this afternoon and she wanted to come out for an evening blacktail still hunt with me. After some talking she got changed and we headed out. I decided to switch spots and take her to an island on a local river. After arriving and throwing on some water socks we waded across the shallow side of the island and changed into our hunting boots.
She was really excited and it took a bit to get her to quit chatting and into hunting mode. We started hunting at 4:00 and had until 7:30 when shooting light ended. We slowly worked our way into the wind along the bank of the island. There were deer trails and sign about every 20 yards. We moved about 400 yards down the bank and then took a heavily travelled trail into the interior of the island. The wind had shifted and we needed to change direction to keep it in our faces.
Morgan was full of quiet questions and was pointing out all sorts of things. We moved past the edge brush and into a mixed grove of fir and alder trees with heavy fern undergrowth. Again there was deer sing and trails everywhere. We still hunted our way along and heard a couple of deer out ahead of us about 70 yards. As we slowly moved in on them the wind swirled and the deer blew out of there. Morgan was all big eyes and excitement.
We continued the hunt working the island from side to side keeping the wind in our face. Just at dark we worked our way back to the river edge and slowly walked back up to our crossing point as the last light was failing. Halfway bak we came across fresh sing on top of our boot prints. She very excitedly told me next time that we needed to build a ground blind and wait for that deer to come by so I could shoot it.
I am totally pumped about the hunt. She has a Bear compound and a Wes Wallace Spike longbow and quit shooting both about 6 months ago. She turned thirteen and other things became more important. She mentioned on Thursday she might want to hunt deer. I blew off a solo trip out to the coast for elk (where I was on elk every day opening weekend, and passed a shot on a cow elk with two calves ) to make sure I could take her with me tonight.
The evening was awesome and she had a lot of fun. I knew we wouldn't have a lot of chance for a kill. She moves about like a bull in the china sho. The only way she will learn is to practice and tonight was the start. She is totally excited to get her bows back out and get to where she can shoot 40lbs and get to hunt next year.
She was a bit excited about wading back across the river in the dark. The dam was letting out more water and what had been up to her knees was now up to the top of her thighs. I held her hand and we chatted about how much fun we had as we crossed back over to the car.
It was a great hunt and looks to be the first of many to come.
Topic: Daughters First Walk Along Deer hunt (Read 388 times)
