stoney15
New member
I decided to take my 6 year old, Hunter, deer hunting for the first time this year. We went out and put up a two person ladder stand in Oct. He asked me almost daily when we were going to go sit in the stand from the day we put it up until the season opener. The stand worked perfectly for having a 6 year old in the stand. I surrounded it in camo burlap from the shooting rail to the platform. It was the perfect height for him. It came up to right about his mouth, so he didn't have any problems seeing out but the majority of his movements were concealed.
The night before season opener I was getting my stuff ready. He comes in with his backpacked stuffed full of stuff, saying "I'm all packed up and ready to go Dad" He had everything you could think of in that backpack. Colors, coloring books, matchbox cars, playdough, action heros, cards, stuffed animals, video games, you name it he more than likely had one packed in there.
Then mom comes in and askes him what he wants to take for snacks. He rattles off a list a mile long with the first thing being pretzles. We had a bunch of little pretzle packs left over from Holloween that he wanted to bring. Mom asks me if they will be to noisy or it they will be ok. I say that they should be fine. Boy was I wrong. A six year old eating pretzles in a tree stand sounds like a train. Holycow, I never realized how noisy pretzles were when eaten by a six year old. Along with the pretzles he packed up a couple of juice boxes, gummy treats, cookies, an apple, and a couple of peanutbutter sandwiches. He was set for a week on stand.
He was so excited I dont think he slept a wink all night.
About 3 am I feel someone pulling on my arm. Here is Hunter saying come on dad its time to get up to go hunting. (We are only about a 10 min drive away from our hunting spot) I pull him up in bed with me and tell him to go to sleep until the alarm goes off. The alarm goes off and he is up before it has a chance to beep a second time. Now he is so excited he can hardly contain himself. I roll myself out out of bed and head to the shower. I come out of the shower the the smell of bacon. I walk into the kitchen and Hunter is standing on a chair helping Mom make breakfast.
We get done eating and head out. He is so bundled up that he can hardly walk. I end up carrying him to the stand. Luckly on of my best friends was hunting with us and he carried my gun for me to the stand. We get to the stand and crawl up. Hunter gets up into the stand and says Dad, the stand is full of stuff. The day before I had taking out a blackcat heat, sleeping bag and a decoy for the hunt. I grab the decoy and set it up. Get out the sleeping and the heater and get it going for Hunter. We sit there quitely as the sun comes up. Hunter does great for about the first 30 minutes. Then I hear, "Dad, I am bored" So I tell him to get some toys out of his backpack. He grabs a coloring book and colors and goes to town coloring and drawing pictures. Now he decides he is hungry, and out comes the train.(pretzles) The good thing is that the spot we are hunting is pretty open so I can see most stuff coming for about 100 yards or more. He colors several pictures, shoots about 10 deer with his Hunter Dan action figure from Cabelas, eats about 6 packs of pretzles, several gummy treats and two juice boxes. He is starting to get bored again so I get out my grunt call and rattleing antlers. I give him the grunt call and tell him to blow it just like I showed him last night. He lets out 3 soft grunts. About 5 minutes later he lets out 4 more. I then give him the rattling antlers and tell him to rattle just like I had showed him. He starts to rattle a little. I was wanting a little more volume so I take the antlers and really crash them together for awhile and then give them back to him to finsh out the sequence. While he is rattleing I let out a few doe bleats. It wasn't 5 minutes after he stops rattleing I see a buck coming across a picked bean field from about 200 yards out. I tell Hunter to be quite and to look out into the field. He sees the deer coming right at us and about starts to hyperventilate. I keep softly wispering to be still and quite. He keeps saying, "shoot it dad, shoot it" About 120 yards in front of us is a small ravine. The deer gets to the ravine and turns and starts to go away from us. I give it two doe bleats and it turns down into the ravine and starts walking along the far edge of the ravine. Then Hunter sneezes and I thought for sure the game was over. But the deer throws up its head, looks toward us and comes running up out of the ravine right at us. It stops at the edge of the ravine looking around. He gets turned boardside and I let the old 12 guage bark. He humps up and runs down into the ravine and up the other side and stops. I shoot again and he talks a couple steps and falls over. Hunter didn't see him go down and is about yelling did you get him, did you get him. I said that I wasn't sure, that we would have to go look for blood. I was hoping that he would get to blood trail him but he didnt go far enough for that. We walk over to the ravine and Hunter starts yelling "dad, there he is, there he is, you got him."
I think I am going to make my own call and market it under the name of the snort & sneeze!!!
Here are a few pictures.
This is the stand we were in.
[image]
[/image]
Here is Hunter with his trophy
[image]
[/image]
Hunter and I with the deer
[image]
[/image]
Not the biggest deer in the woods but a trophy to me. I had passed this buck and two others just a little bigger up with my bow.(The were/are several monsters in the section that my land is in. There were two really nice 8 pointers shot. Plus 5 other deer that were 150 plus.) Here are the two big 8 pointers that were shot out there and a 13 pointer.
[image]
[/image]
[image]
[/image]
You cant really tell it from the pictures but the 8 without the drop is substantially bigger than the one with the drop.
The 8 with the drop was a highly visible deer. I saw him on a handfull of occasions. The closests was at 50 yards to days befor the deer season while calling coyotes. The other two I never saw or got any camtrakker pictures of. One of my neighbors has supposedly seen on that will go over 200 inches. I haven't seen it but it wouldn't surprise me with the pictures that I have from last year. This one we estimated to be better than 180 last year.
The night before season opener I was getting my stuff ready. He comes in with his backpacked stuffed full of stuff, saying "I'm all packed up and ready to go Dad" He had everything you could think of in that backpack. Colors, coloring books, matchbox cars, playdough, action heros, cards, stuffed animals, video games, you name it he more than likely had one packed in there.
Then mom comes in and askes him what he wants to take for snacks. He rattles off a list a mile long with the first thing being pretzles. We had a bunch of little pretzle packs left over from Holloween that he wanted to bring. Mom asks me if they will be to noisy or it they will be ok. I say that they should be fine. Boy was I wrong. A six year old eating pretzles in a tree stand sounds like a train. Holycow, I never realized how noisy pretzles were when eaten by a six year old. Along with the pretzles he packed up a couple of juice boxes, gummy treats, cookies, an apple, and a couple of peanutbutter sandwiches. He was set for a week on stand.
He was so excited I dont think he slept a wink all night.
About 3 am I feel someone pulling on my arm. Here is Hunter saying come on dad its time to get up to go hunting. (We are only about a 10 min drive away from our hunting spot) I pull him up in bed with me and tell him to go to sleep until the alarm goes off. The alarm goes off and he is up before it has a chance to beep a second time. Now he is so excited he can hardly contain himself. I roll myself out out of bed and head to the shower. I come out of the shower the the smell of bacon. I walk into the kitchen and Hunter is standing on a chair helping Mom make breakfast.
We get done eating and head out. He is so bundled up that he can hardly walk. I end up carrying him to the stand. Luckly on of my best friends was hunting with us and he carried my gun for me to the stand. We get to the stand and crawl up. Hunter gets up into the stand and says Dad, the stand is full of stuff. The day before I had taking out a blackcat heat, sleeping bag and a decoy for the hunt. I grab the decoy and set it up. Get out the sleeping and the heater and get it going for Hunter. We sit there quitely as the sun comes up. Hunter does great for about the first 30 minutes. Then I hear, "Dad, I am bored" So I tell him to get some toys out of his backpack. He grabs a coloring book and colors and goes to town coloring and drawing pictures. Now he decides he is hungry, and out comes the train.(pretzles) The good thing is that the spot we are hunting is pretty open so I can see most stuff coming for about 100 yards or more. He colors several pictures, shoots about 10 deer with his Hunter Dan action figure from Cabelas, eats about 6 packs of pretzles, several gummy treats and two juice boxes. He is starting to get bored again so I get out my grunt call and rattleing antlers. I give him the grunt call and tell him to blow it just like I showed him last night. He lets out 3 soft grunts. About 5 minutes later he lets out 4 more. I then give him the rattling antlers and tell him to rattle just like I had showed him. He starts to rattle a little. I was wanting a little more volume so I take the antlers and really crash them together for awhile and then give them back to him to finsh out the sequence. While he is rattleing I let out a few doe bleats. It wasn't 5 minutes after he stops rattleing I see a buck coming across a picked bean field from about 200 yards out. I tell Hunter to be quite and to look out into the field. He sees the deer coming right at us and about starts to hyperventilate. I keep softly wispering to be still and quite. He keeps saying, "shoot it dad, shoot it" About 120 yards in front of us is a small ravine. The deer gets to the ravine and turns and starts to go away from us. I give it two doe bleats and it turns down into the ravine and starts walking along the far edge of the ravine. Then Hunter sneezes and I thought for sure the game was over. But the deer throws up its head, looks toward us and comes running up out of the ravine right at us. It stops at the edge of the ravine looking around. He gets turned boardside and I let the old 12 guage bark. He humps up and runs down into the ravine and up the other side and stops. I shoot again and he talks a couple steps and falls over. Hunter didn't see him go down and is about yelling did you get him, did you get him. I said that I wasn't sure, that we would have to go look for blood. I was hoping that he would get to blood trail him but he didnt go far enough for that. We walk over to the ravine and Hunter starts yelling "dad, there he is, there he is, you got him."
I think I am going to make my own call and market it under the name of the snort & sneeze!!!
Here are a few pictures.
This is the stand we were in.
[image]
Here is Hunter with his trophy
[image]
Hunter and I with the deer
[image]
Not the biggest deer in the woods but a trophy to me. I had passed this buck and two others just a little bigger up with my bow.(The were/are several monsters in the section that my land is in. There were two really nice 8 pointers shot. Plus 5 other deer that were 150 plus.) Here are the two big 8 pointers that were shot out there and a 13 pointer.
[image]
[image]
You cant really tell it from the pictures but the 8 without the drop is substantially bigger than the one with the drop.
The 8 with the drop was a highly visible deer. I saw him on a handfull of occasions. The closests was at 50 yards to days befor the deer season while calling coyotes. The other two I never saw or got any camtrakker pictures of. One of my neighbors has supposedly seen on that will go over 200 inches. I haven't seen it but it wouldn't surprise me with the pictures that I have from last year. This one we estimated to be better than 180 last year.
