Austin's Buck
| Firearms - Muzzleloader |
There I was, all bundled up in blankets, sitting in a chair with a Chihuahua failing at any attempts of adding any body warmth to my lap, as I watched the 2nd ¼ of my son’s football game come to a close. As I was trying to warm my toes I was not really looking forward to what I had promised to do after the game. It was one of the first really cold days we have had this fall and also happened to be the day I promised I would take him and his sister hunting. We had talked about either Chukar or Dove or attempting to fill both the kids deer tags in the last few days left of the Muzzle Loader season. All three of us decided that it was just too cold to bird hunt, so deer hunting it was. We piled into the truck, loaded the gear, filled the tanks and off we went for an afternoon hunt. We decided to try a new area that was a little closer to home since we didn’t have all day. Once we got into the area for the hunt, I had the kids load their firearms. Austin had shot his a couple of days earlier and it became very apparent when trying to load it that he had not cleaned it afterwards. It was easily a two person effort to load it each time now. The first place we really stopped to glass the hill sides, we saw nothing but big ole’ Muley butts! Not having any of our high power optics, I just couldn’t put any horns on them from the distance we were at, but I could tell that a couple had to be bucks by the way they were pushing the others around.
We got back into the truck and drove around the back side of the foothills. Before coming over the top we all decided to get out, take on the cold and walk over the hill to see how close we could get. Other than cutting us right down to our bones, the wind was perfect, any scent on us was blown away from the deer.
We came over the ridge and got behind some boulders where I told the kids to hang tight while I glassed the draw for bucks. I didn’t even have to pull up my binoculars when I saw a nice buck bedded down about 200 yards from us. We snuck about 50 yards closer to another group of smaller boulders and took a seat; Austin to my left and Madi to my right. It was decided before the hunt that Austin would get the first shot. He was so nervous but Madi was ready to back him up. We knew that alongside the deer he was aiming at was at least one more shooter buck. The plan was for Austin to take his shot, which would alert the others and then Madi would have her shot. As I watched the bucks to make sure they were snoozing and not nervous, I coached Austin to take his time, take a deep breath and wait till he was ready. BOOM! He takes his shot and his deer wakes up, and continues to lie there, while the others stand up wondering what the noise was. He missed! His deer stands up and at this point Madi has 7 bucks to choose from. All of them pretty calm as they started to graze around. As I am coaching her just like I did her brother, he is on my left whimpering and begging me to help him load his gun again! His sister turns to me and says, “Mom, let him use my gun, I got my trophy this year and I want him to get a nice buck.” WOW! Did that just come from my 15-year-old daughter who loves nothing more than to show up the boys at school with her hunt success stories?! She hands him her gun and a nice, wide 4x4 starts moving the boys around. Austin steadies himself again, takes aim at the big boy and squeezes the trigger. Pop! Madi and I both look at him to see that his gun didn’t fire. The primer is the only thing that went off! Oh My! We watch the deer continue to graze and decide to go back to the big boulder to reload Austin’s gun. We reloaded it and went back to the shooting position we had before. (We hoped that the Laurel and Hardy show had ended!) Austin got seated, again. This time the bucks are about 170 yards out. He said he didn’t want to shot that far so he patiently waited. As the deer moved around and got closer, I would range them and tell him the distance. 165… “I’m gonna wait, Mom.” 154… “I’m still waiting.” 143, “Not yet, Mom, I want them closer.” 136 Austin and they are starting to side hill a bit… “Okay, I think I can do it this time”…. BOOM! THWACK! He hit it! We watched the buck run about 50 yards, stop, turn in a circle or two, flip over backwards and drop into a bush. He was done. Austin’s shot looked like it was a little far back so Madi ran up to the truck to get more rounds for when we got down to him. We watched to make sure this fine buck was not coming out, only to see all the does and other bucks go nowhere! Some of them even went to see what happened to Austin’s buck. When Madi got back we decided we would try to give her a chance at a buck before we went down to Austin’s. I had Austin take her down to a place where they could get a little closer shot while I moved the truck around and got the stuff for dressing out the deer.
He gets her to about 140 yards and I watch them from a distance. BOOM! The draw came alive again. I could not believe how little these deer were not spooking! Not one of them left the draw until the 3 of us walked through it to Austin’s buck. Oh! By the way, Madi missed! We meet up at Austin’s deer where he is just elated that he got such a nice deer. He then turns to me and asks, as he bends over and points his rear end at me, “Mom, can you get the cactus out of my butt?!” While helping his sister, he sat in a cactus, which is why after just one shot by Madi, they both decided that the shooting gallery should close!
We figured that Austin’s buck is a 2nd year buck. Austin measured him (6 times the first night!) at 25 ¼ wide, but he is not really heavy. But for my son’s second deer hunt it is a very fine deer!
A couple lessons from this hunt…
A couple lessons from this hunt…
- Always clean your muzzle loader after you shoot it!
- Never assume the deer are gonna run!
- Watch where you sit your butt!
Whether we are riding horses, watching movies, hunting or fishing, I love the time I get with my kids. They have grown up so fast and I am going to really miss them when they have families of their own. I do look forward to the time I get the picture of my grandchild’s first hunt!
It is not always about the trophy you can put on the wall, but about the trophy you keep in your heart.
God Bless
Julie Hughes
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