The youth season brings success for Team Poor Boys

After a long and stressful week of no hunting, I finally got to get out Saturday evening with my son Dakota. We were hunting the north farm with Cory and his daughter Lauren and Billie and his daughter Bailee. I set up on the food plot where Cory killed his doe early in the bow season. There was a ton of sign and it finally looked like the deer were starting to work on the rape that we planted back in August. They've been hitting the clover all along, but I guess it has taken them a while to figure out the rape is good stuff, too.

We set the blind up in the same spot that Cory and I had for his deer - in a tall patch of weeds on the end of the food plot - and I brushed the blind in as good as I could with the surrounding weeds. Deer were moving early, as we had already seen a few on the drive in. We hadn't been there long when Dakota and I heard a loud shot ring from close by. Turned out that Lauren had popped a doe before they even got settled in (I'll let Cory tell the whole story on that one). By 4:45pm, we saw our first doe at the back corner of the field. She looked the situation over and decided to head back into the woods. About an hour later, another doe came into the back of the field and started feeding. She only ate for a minute or so and then quickly turned and headed back into the cover, never offering a broadside shot. At around 6:40pm, another doe showed up in the back corner of the field again and this time she was determined to come out and feed. She eased her way out into the middle of the field and turned broadside, presenting a perfect shot opportunity. I made sure I had the camera all zoomed in, in focus, etc and gave Dakota the go-ahead to take a shot when he was ready. He quickly squeezed the trigger and the doe jumped and bolted back into the cover. I was so focused on the camera, that I really didn't know if or where he had hit her. He felt good about the shot, so we rewound the tape and watched the footage. You could see the bullet's impact right on the deer's shoulder, and I was certain that the deer wouldn't be far.

After getting some additional footage, we headed down to where the deer was standing to start looking for blood before we lost daylight. It took forever to find blood (just finding where the deer had been standing), but once we did, it wasn't any trouble to trail her the 50 or so yards that she ran before expiring. I was one proud dad at the shot he had made. It was great to have another good kill on video, and even better that Dakota and Lauren got a double. I just wish Cory had a camera with him to capture Lauren's hunt.

We went back out this evening to the 30-acre woods here by my house, but didn't have any luck. Hopefully Cory and I will get back out a day or two for some bowhunting this week. These days of being able to slip out after work for an evening hunt will soon be coming to an end when that clock rolls back. Got to get them while you can!