Who got the best deal?

weekender

Well-known member
You be the judge. Just before our trip out west this year, we were walking each evening for exercise making about a mile trip out and back a couple times each evening. It was Friday evening, we had to leave Tuesday morning and I still had a lot to do to get ready. We were approached on our walk by a young man I had seen many times, knew his face but not his name. He's a neighbors son we have been sharing our hog and deer meat with. He asked "are you the folks that gave us the hog meat?". We said yes, that's us. I thought I knew what was coming next, more hog meat. My wife had talked to his mother and found out the family really like the hog and deer meat. What came next caught me off guard. He said "do you think that maybe sometime when you are going hog hunting I could like just tag along?" WOW!. I really enjoy sharing the outdoors especially with youth. I immediately made up my mind if his dad would agree, we were going hogging on Saturday evening. My reply was "let's go talk to your dad". Long story short, dad agreed and Saturday evening we took the most well behaved well mannered 11yr old I had ever been around to SC for his first hunt of any kind. We picked him up at noon, took him back to our house where I had set up a popup blind exactly like we would be hunt from complete with a card board hog target. First up was a quick lesson in gun safety, then hog anatomy. He listened very closely and soon fired two shots from the .223 1/4" apart exactly where I told him to hit the hog. There was no spot to shoot at, just a cardboard hog and I explained where to hit and he did. On the way to the hunt, he repeated the gun safety rules verbatim without any prompting just own his own. Word for word. The hunt was disappointing. We set up on a feeder with a large boar on the camera several days in a row but he did not get big being stupid. He either smelled us, our track or heard us, he was a no show. The young man was very positive, understood you don't get something every time, thanked us over and over and we agreed to a rematch at a later date. Returning from out west, I was excited about taking him again. I saw his dad Friday at noon and asked for permission to take his son Friday evening and return Sunday afternoon. He agreed. My wife and I picked up the young man after school and off we went. Saturday morning we set up on a different feeder, one that has a 90% chance of deer and hog. Rifle deer came in at our club 9-15. Despite a very early entry, on stand setup 45 minutes before shooting light, we only saw turkeys. It was the young man's first siteing of a turkey and while nothing came to shoot, he again remained positive with zero complaints. We checked some more cameras and made another move for Saturday evening. We got in the blind about 5:15 PM and in less than 10 minutes we had action. A 75# boar was slipping in. I was to put on his ear protection take the safety off the AR15 because I could do it a little more quietly than he could. I slipped it to fire and really quick, BANG! The hog was on his way stumbling and I felt really good when I seen him pile up in 50 yds.













A quick recovery and pics, back in the blind for more. It wasn't long till another hog started in but must have winded us. It turned back before giving a shot. About 6:30 a group of 5 or 6 deer showed up. I had told my buddy not to put his finger on the trigger until he was ready to shoot. I had installed a Timney set at 1.7 lbs, prolly too light for a novice but yet light enough he would not be apt to pull off squeezing it either. What I didn't tell him was to wait till I had the safety off. He was lining up as I was reaching for the safety and when I flipped the safety to fire, the gun went off, BOOM! I knew we had blown it, all the deer ran off. I told him he had his finger on the trigger when I clicked the safety. He said "I had the cross hairs on the exact spot you told me to, I was ready to shoot." He had done his part. My wife said she saw one of the deer "butt kick" at the shot and I have never seen one do that without being hit. We waited 30 minutes and went to look. Sure enough, an absolute perfect shot, slightly quartering to on the shoulder out midship on the far side. Deer had went about 50 yds. It happened so fast my wife did not have time to hit the record button. The young man was ecstatic but I think me and my wife got the best deal.




On a side note, a Caldwell Field Pod gun rest is an excellent tool for beginners. The gun remained on target even with me moving the safety.

 
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That's a great story for a first-timer. Congrats and thanks for introducing a youngster to out great sport. I've started talking with the folks of one of my son's friends about introducing him to hunting, so hopefully I'll follow in your footsteps in the next couple years (he's 8).
 
Weekender, that is an awesome story. Sounds like you and the wife found yourselves a new hunting partner to share time with. Its great that his family really appreciates the meat from the hunt also.
 
Originally Posted By: hm1996Great story. That smile says it all!

Hopefully it'll get an HOM nomination.


Regards,
hm

+1 that will get my vote!
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great story....we need to get more kids involved in hunting ...they are the future of our sport...(footnote) love the red hair and the camo....great pic. thanks for posting and sharing your story
 
Originally Posted By: the impactzoneI hope he wins the HOM I assume you will give it to him, thank you for giving him the chance to provide for his family.


You can bet if it wins, so will the young hunter.

Thanks for all the kind words, much appreciated.
 
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