kldad73
Member
It was 2 years ago when I first took my son with me to the deer stand it was then that I started to plan how and when he might go hunting for the first time. Thanks to those on this forum I was introduced to the 6X6.8. The performance people reported got me thinking that this would be the perfect caliber for a kid’s deer rifle. Thanks to Ritch for RPG and Greg (GLShooter) I began to build such a rifle.
Last year my son was not quite ready to hunt as he still required some practice. So I worked up a load of Nolser 90 grain BT and sighted it in. Later during opening weekend of MO firearm season I neck shot this nice young 9 point at 200 yards. Normally we would let a buck this size walk but I had yet to harvest a deer in from of my son. I wanted him to see what it was like and to stoke the fire in him to go try to hunt the next year.
Light a fire in him it did. He told me then that he wanted to hunt the following year. I explained to him the importance of practicing. That in order for me to let him hunt he would have to prove to me that he could confidently kill a deer at 100 yards. He agreed and practiced all summer until he improved his groups to an acceptable level of 2-1/2 to 3” groups. Those groups may not be tight enough for some but for and 8 year old it thought it was good enough. Defiantly good enough to kill a deer!
So with MO youth season on the 1st week of November, we headed off to my wife’s families farm in northern Missouri. Saturday morning was uneventful as we only saw a lonely doe at 250+, which was way outside my comfort zone for my son to take a shot. Saturday evening was a little more exciting as we saw seven deer total with a decent buck chasing a doe. The next morning we decided to hunt at a different location. Again the morning started out uneventful and we didn’t see much action until about 7:45. It was then when we saw a monster on the neighbor’s property. That seemed to pick the boy’s interest up for a bit. About ½ an hour later I look behind the blind and I see a buck step out of brush at 50 yards. I whisper to my son that I see a deer and he immediately stops what he was doing and turns to look. I slowly hand him the rifle and he uses the back of the chair as a rest. I see him slowly take of the safety and impatiently wait for the gun to go off. As the trigger breaks and the gun go’s off and I immediately turn to look at the deer. It hops a bit and runs directly towards us. The buck made it roughly 10 feet and then piles up. At that point I couldn’t tell you who was more excited him or me, but we waited for what seemed like an eternity. My son’s eyes and smile got bigger the closer we got to the deer. He was quite proud of himself as he should be. While gutting the deer we saw just how good his shot was. It was right behind the shoulder (double lung).
Last year my son was not quite ready to hunt as he still required some practice. So I worked up a load of Nolser 90 grain BT and sighted it in. Later during opening weekend of MO firearm season I neck shot this nice young 9 point at 200 yards. Normally we would let a buck this size walk but I had yet to harvest a deer in from of my son. I wanted him to see what it was like and to stoke the fire in him to go try to hunt the next year.
Light a fire in him it did. He told me then that he wanted to hunt the following year. I explained to him the importance of practicing. That in order for me to let him hunt he would have to prove to me that he could confidently kill a deer at 100 yards. He agreed and practiced all summer until he improved his groups to an acceptable level of 2-1/2 to 3” groups. Those groups may not be tight enough for some but for and 8 year old it thought it was good enough. Defiantly good enough to kill a deer!
So with MO youth season on the 1st week of November, we headed off to my wife’s families farm in northern Missouri. Saturday morning was uneventful as we only saw a lonely doe at 250+, which was way outside my comfort zone for my son to take a shot. Saturday evening was a little more exciting as we saw seven deer total with a decent buck chasing a doe. The next morning we decided to hunt at a different location. Again the morning started out uneventful and we didn’t see much action until about 7:45. It was then when we saw a monster on the neighbor’s property. That seemed to pick the boy’s interest up for a bit. About ½ an hour later I look behind the blind and I see a buck step out of brush at 50 yards. I whisper to my son that I see a deer and he immediately stops what he was doing and turns to look. I slowly hand him the rifle and he uses the back of the chair as a rest. I see him slowly take of the safety and impatiently wait for the gun to go off. As the trigger breaks and the gun go’s off and I immediately turn to look at the deer. It hops a bit and runs directly towards us. The buck made it roughly 10 feet and then piles up. At that point I couldn’t tell you who was more excited him or me, but we waited for what seemed like an eternity. My son’s eyes and smile got bigger the closer we got to the deer. He was quite proud of himself as he should be. While gutting the deer we saw just how good his shot was. It was right behind the shoulder (double lung).
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