The last 11 years and his next step...

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Roy68

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Thanks for all the congrats. I have shared them with Lane. He has been riding pretty tall in the saddle this week. I grilled the tenderloins Monday & Tuesday morning so he could have them for lunch at school. From what I hear a few of his buds got some samples and thought it was the best steak they had ever had.

I promise I will get you the story as soon as I can. I've been hunting every free hour this week.
 

pointer26

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Thank you for taking the time to write this and taking us along a great trip. Kudos to Superdad.
 
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Roy68

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As Paul Harvey said……..The rest of the story.

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After our short evening hunt Saturday night (12-5) no deer were seen, but we were close. We snuck out in the dark, and made our way home. It was great day and evening when I look back at it. Lane filled up at the supper table and was in bed before we could discuss the next day’s plans. I spoke with my wife about taking him out first thing in the morning before church for a couple hours, and she thought that would work out fine.

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In the morning we were gearing up, and I happened to ask Lane if he had any homework? He just stared at me while I watched his eyes start to show some anxiety. Well?...... He finally answered that he did. I asked him why he hadn’t worked on this Friday night when he got home from weigh-ins. He avoided that question and promptly offered up that he would get it done in the evening at the end of the day. So here I am with a dilemma on my hands, and Lane hoping like mad I agree with his plan.

If you back up a couple days in this (thread), we had a long discussion one morning about aligning his priorities with his responsibilities. I looked at Lane and laid out the following options. We hunt now, and you have to wait until after church to work on your homework and loose a chunk of the afternoon to hunt, or you get it done now, and we have the entire afternoon through evening with no interruptions to hunt. I also reminded him that my brother would be meeting up with us in the afternoon as well. He was not happy, but he walked into the house looking for his #2 pencil.

I really wanted to go out that morning, and Lane’s lack of follow through screwed my morning hunt up as well. As a parent I can live with that though. I don’t think kids (even young adults) ever realize that sticking our guns as parents isn’t always the easiest thing for mom & dad to do. Yet we have a responsibility to teach our kids that there are always consequences to our actions whether positive or negative. Those consequences always affect those directly responsible in the end. I know I never really grasped this until I was high school aged probably. So I did take some time to explain to Lane that not only was he bummed out, I was as well and it wasn’t my fault.

Lane scribbled away, and I enjoyed another cup of coffee and the Sunday sunrise from my front windows.

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I reflected and thought; once again I’m able to use outdoor pursuits to teach lifelong lessons to my son(s). I sure hope that many years from now my sons can reflect, and say “huh…dad wasn’t a hard case, but he was teaching us something”.

So the noon hour had arrived and we were gearing up again. The temperature had climbed into the 50’s and is abnormally warm for us this time of year, but the wind was out of the north finally and that was much more conducive for our first set up.

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We are located on the western edge of the Flint Hills in central KS, and it is nothing but grass for miles around us with some spotty hay fields and small broke ground fields. The topography for the most part though is continuous rolling pasture land. At our home place we have a large spring fed pond, which encompasses a little over 5 acres. The pond almost always is running water out of the overflow pipe. On the east side of the pond there is a small park of big cottonwoods and hedge trees with scattered cedars about 1 acre in coverage. On the north side of the pond dam is another timber claim following the running crick to the neighbors. This area is very dense with cottonwoods, hedge, and cedar trees behind this pond. It is about 3 acres in size. The neighboring pastures have some very deep draws and cuts with good holes for deer to pile up in. I think most whitetail hunters in the Midwest and going East across this country would not consider this pasture country I like to hunt as Whitetail habitat, because it is pretty wide open country.

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Roy68

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We only let one other individual hunt and fish on our property and he used to be a ranch & oil hand for my wife’s family. Last year he I let him set up a double tree stand so he could take his grandson hunting with him. My plan was to sit in that stand. Now by nature I’m a spot and stalk deer hunter, and I focus on big grass pastures the most would not normally think about hunting. So this stand idea was out of bounds for me. My thinking was that still hunting this area out into the pasture and thickets in the draws was not going to be real successful with Lane. I really wanted to set him up for the best possible success. So the plan was to sneak in from the south and sit in this stand.

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I mentioned my brother earlier. He was going to meet up with us as we planned an evening hunt on a ¼ of ground about 20 miles west. I had asked Kevin when he arrived that he go up to the NE corner of the pasture and work his way west down that fence to be directly North of us. In doing so he would have to cut across two deep cuts with thickets. This would put him upwind from any deer in those draws, and if they bumped they should escape to where Lane & I were set up. Once he was directly north of us he was to move into the timber claim Lane and I were sitting in and still hunt it towards us. The idea was that if we hadn’t seen anything by then his slow movements and the wind would get any deer up and milling. Kevin said it would be a couple hours before he arrived and he said a week would pass before he got to us. In other words he was going to move awful slow, which was perfect. Lane and I knew we had a 3 hour sit before Uncle Kevin showed up.

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I took great care in explaining my thought processes for determining our approach and formation of the plan. It would have been so much easier to simply tell Lane what to do, but then the hunt would be devoid of learning. Now I don’t expect an 11 year old to be the quietest hunter when he’s amped up on leading the way in on his first deer hunt. We stopped many times to discuss our movements, sound, observation for parts of deer, rolling our weight across the ground versus stomping our way in, as we worked out of the grass and into the trees. It took about an hour to work our way into the stand as quietly as we could and got set up. We were facing North with the wind in our face, and Lane was on my left. In hindsight I should have had Lane on my right.

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After about 30 minutes of sitting the nature around us became very loud. I whispered to Lane and asked if he had noticed how noisy it had become with the noise of birds, squirrels and the like. He nodded, and I quietly explained that this was a good thing. We even had a few ducks come in a light on the shallow crick the pond fed into. Lane & I had successfully melted into the environment and disappeared. He was doing great.


At one point Lane had a wood pecker about 3 feet above his head looking for its next meal. A couple of squirrels kept him on edge as they would leave a tree for the ground and crunch the leaves creating false alarms of deer on the move for Lane. It really was incredible to watch Lane become ever more sensitive to changes in the world around us at that moment.

We had been set for almost 2 hours now and with our walk in we were at the 3 hour mark. I figured Uncle Kevin should be north of us by now and moving in. All of a sudden the ducks left. I whispered to Lane that the ducks departure could be either because they wanted to leave, or they had felt some pressure. I reminded him that the pressure could be from a bobcat, Uncle Kevin, or deer.

A few minutes later I heard that distinctive snort/wheeze to the Northwest of us. I whispered “deer” and told Lane to get his rifle up, and ready the hammer as I pointed the direction to watch from. I’m fairly certain Lane’s heart rate blew through the roof at this point. I quickly picked up movement through the lower parts of some cedars, and had Lane aimed a hole I thought they would pass through. I whispered that I would stop them and if one was in the hole to concentrate on his breathing, point of aim, and squeeze. In all of our shooting I emphasize these things, and always always watching the bullet hit his point of aim.

I have lots of practice coaxing cattle, and I can make a pretty good calf when I need too. So when the first doe stepped into that hole and I made the sweetest little calf bawl that I could muster. She stepped through, but the 2nd doe stopped. I watched with anticipation as Lane eased his finger across the trigger. Then she started to walk, and I stopped Lane. In a blink of an eye the shot opportunity had passed, and she was back behind some underbrush and cedars. We watched and listened and after several minutes I had Lane bring the hammer on back down to half-cock.

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Lane leaned his head back against that tree, and shook almost uncontrollably. I can’t count the number of animals I’ve harvested let alone the number of deer. However, I can vividly remember my first deer hunt and the emotional rushes of that experience. It was like Déjà Vu for me watching Lane deal with the adrenaline. I did my best to convince him to close his eyes and breathe deep. Honestly, I thought he was going to shake us right out of that tree. Come on Lane. Concentrate Lane, focus, control your breathing; man we are NOT done here. Concentrate Lane.

Lane finally had his composure back and was on point again. I whispered that he needed to keep his senses on alert. Make sure you are looking for movement, looking for parts of deer; not the whole deer Lane. It was maybe only 10 minutes and I picked out the flash of legs under the cedars again. Again in the almost the same spot as the 2 deer. Lane here they come, focus on that same hole and I’ll try to stop them again.

This time the first 2 does went through that hole in a flash. I quickly had Lane turn to his left pretty hard as these 2 were going to pass behind us. There was not a good shot, but they weren’t spooked just moving quick. I had Lane reset on that same hole, and I picked up a 3rd coming now. That sweet little calf bawl stopped that big spike dead in his tracks, but he was turned straight away from us. Lane again was on aim, and easing in on the trigger when the spike started to walk straight away. This was 60 yard shot, and a chip shot for any seasoned shooter. I whispered sternly in Lane’s ear and told him not to shoot. He backed off the trigger and craned his neck around to look at me with a disgusted look. I simply whispered not a good shot.

Now truth be told there was nothing wrong with the shot, but I was not convinced as to where Lane was aiming. I had no confidence that he was going to place that bullet in a good spot shooting down on that spike as it walked away from us. A few minutes passed and I could make out my brothers orange just 70-75 yards from us. I made my best bob-white calls, and got his attention. He eased back and forth and finally picked us out. As Uncle Kevin started easing toward us he didn’t let up on his slow movements. So I took the next minutes to whisper to Lane why I told him not to shoot at that spike. He was frustrated but he couldn’t honestly tell me where he was aiming. So I’m assuming that he was simply aiming at deer hide, and was reassured that I made the right call.

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Roy68

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If I had to guess it took my brother a ½ hour to cover that 60 of those 70 some yards. As we looked down at him, and started to work out a plan with a few simple hand signals; he all of sudden opened the palm of his hand in a halt signal. I sat motionless and whispered to Lane not to move. We both watched Uncle Kevin’s eyes give the direction, and Lane & I both shifted our eyes that direction as well. There were silhouettes of deer to our NE. They were about 85 yards away and moving down hill towards us with the wind in our faces still. We slowly shifted our positions. I whispered to Lane to NOT to bring the rifle up until they passed behind a brush pile we had made a few years ago. As soon as they did Lane brought the old lever gun up. Now this tree stand had a safety bar on it out in front of us, but due to the angle the deer were coming from he couldn’t rest his left arm. There were 3 does. Two were very mature, and the 3rd was an older yearling likely. They were quartering to us and still working our way.

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I quickly made myself as small as I could in the corner of that tree stand. I rested my right elbow on the right hand side of the safety bar, and grabbed the front rail with my hand. This created a corner and I told lane to rest his hand and fore stock of the rifle across my forearm. This made for a steady rest, but put me at an angle so that I couldn’t see very well yet it put Lane’s right ear in front of me. I whispered, Lane aim at the leading edge of the close shoulder when they clear the trees, and shoot the first one through, don’t forget to breathe and see the bullet hit. (I didn’t care one lick as to which one came through first). I quickly buried my left ear in my shoulder and reached around my face like a 220 pound contortionist with my free left hand to stick a finger in my right ear. I could see my brother down below trying not to laugh with a giant grin on his face.

CrrrrACK!!! My deceased dad’s old 1951 Marlin 35 remington came to life after several decades of rest. That lever gun spoke the truth!

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I turned in time to see a doe running at my brother with its front right leg limp. Kevin side stepped her as she went by him and she curled around a group of small cedars. We could see all sides but not through them. I knew she was hit and hit well. I had Lane cycle the action and stay ready and focused on that group of cedars. After 15 minutes I had him unload and I handed the rifle down to my brother. I then grabbed a hold of Lane with one hand on his chest and the other on his back and started to shake him with utter exuberance. That doe was down. Not just a doe, but my first son’s first deer!

Deer down. Deer down. Deer down. Holy crap lane you did it.....!!!!!!!

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Lane climbed down, and he an Uncle Kevin sneaked up on that doe to make sure she had expired…. Me; well I just sat in that tree for a few minutes soaking it all in. My brain raced back some 25 years ago to my first deer. That bitter cold December afternoon day, the last day of my season, on a place we call Tantens. My dad and my godfather were present, and I shot my first deer on my 15th birthday. My Dad is gone now, but it sure felt like he was there today looking over my shoulder looking down at my brother & Lane with that big toothy grin beaming ear to ear.

Lane had put that 200gr pill in the top of the right shoulder and ran the length of her and stopped in the hind left quarter. She was a nice sized yearling doe, but the size doesn’t matter one bit. Not once has he commented on the size or lack of horn; there has been no comparison to my B&C worthy bucks.

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To many times we focus on the perceived trophy; that trophy of size, the bragging rights, the word buck vs doe, bull vs cow, the bragging rights of inches. Every hunt I’ve ever been on is a trophy hunt in some way to me, and you can’t hang a single one of them on the wall. Lane will never forget today, nor will I. He will go on in life to other hunts and endeavors. Now 25 years from now if you ask about his first deer, he will remember it in a finite detail of exactness. A trophy hunt of magnitude that only he can grasp. It is his, and no one else’s. It will never be published in some book for individuals to lust after or the owner’s to point and puff up there chest’s over.

Lane has taken that next step, and now he is waiting to take the next step in his life…...


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realunlucky

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Excellent write up and educational to me as a father with kids just a few years away from being able to have a tag. Thank you
 
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Roy68

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I noticed on my phone that some of the pictures are rotated and I'm not sure why. When I look at this on the laptop, they are all correctly displayed. fwiw I'm using photobucket to load the pictures

Thanks again for the positive comments. I hope the parents and/or kids reading this take something away from it for the positive. By all means I'm no more of a "Super Dad" than any other father that works his tail of for his family. I'm still human and that makes me just as fallible as the next guy. In the end I want my wife and sons to be able to say, "Yep, Dad got it right".
 
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