He was finally ready. He passed the hunter safety course. He was shooting pretty well. So, this weekend, during Marylands youth hunt, I took my ten-year son on his first deer hunt.
We spend several evenings getting our gear ready. We went over everything we needed to take, his shotgun, ammo, safety gear, food and water. We even bought a cheap ground blind so we would not have to climb up in a tree stand.
I had the day before off, so that afternoon we drove out to the farm. Put some bait out and set up the ground blind and checked the area out for deer sign. We set up the blind in the same place were I had killed deer before. It is good spot. Where an old logging road crosses a dry creek bed. We saw lots of deer track.
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We then headed over to the range to let him fire a few rounds. He was hitting the target at 25 yards. Not bad for an old youth model H&R Topper 88.
We still had a few hours to kill before dinner, so we decided to go back to the blind and do some scouting. Within thirty minutes I saw a deer. There were all kinds of movement around us. Something big was close. He was getting excited, but it was time to go. Then upon existing the blind he saw a doe not twenty yards away. He was really pumped now.
I got him up at 5:00 am. He was quickly dressed and out the door. We were in the blind and set up before 6:00 am. It was quite and still. Nothing was moving. A few hours passed without us seeing anything. I explained there was more to hunting than just shooting. That sometimes you never see a thing.
Well, I guess all the excitement got to him and he slowly fell asleep.
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I let him lay there for about an hour. They we gathered our stuff and headed home. I didnt want to over do a great time.
