Diggerson Jr.\'s First Deer!

D

diggerson

New member
Mar 3, 2014
32


Don\'t know how to describe how proud I am of my 12 year old son! This is his first year hunting big game. After toiling over how to start him on preference points and which youth tags to attempt to get for him last March, we ended up drawing our third choice for him, a CO eastern plains muzzleloader tag. The season was Oct 11-19, but we\'d only have the weekends to try to punch this tag.

Needless to say, per the photo, he got the job done! Best $10.75 I ever spent! I\'ll post more pics and the rest of the story over the next day or two, as time permits. :)
 
Forgot to mention, this tag was for antlerless deer only, but you may have noticed that on the tag.

I also have an E/S archery tag for this same unit, and the first of three split seasons opened Oct 1. I made a trip out the first weekend, to hunt and scout for my son\'s upcoming hunt. I also went out the weekend prior to this to scout and set a few game cameras. Didn\'t see a single deer on either of these trips, and it had me a little worried.

Not to worry too much, as opening morning of my son\'s hunt, we were on deer right at first light. These deer were on the move, but I had a feeling I knew where they were headed to bed, so we slowly made our way this draw. As we reached the crest of a small ridge, I slowly proceeded and stopped to glass every few steps ahead. Just over the rise, I caught a glimpse of a small fork horn buck, bedded near some heavy brush. I didn\'t know for sure, but thought during the brief glimpse we got of the deer earlier, there was a doe in this group of 5-6 deer. We slowly belly crawled closer until we didn\'t dare to anymore. At this point, I could make out three total small bucks, but knew there were more deer there. So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, the deer decided to get up for a mid-morning stretch. We were 60-75 yards from the deer we could see, easily in range of the .50 cal muzzleloader with open sights, and more importantly, within range that I had confidence in a shot my son could take.

So one buck gets up and starts milling around. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then... no more deer. A bachelor herd of 5 fork horn mule deer. They milled around and offered many broadside shot opportunities. With my E/S archery tag in my pocket, I thought seriously about taking a shot at one of these bucks, as I felt I could get 20 yards closer in the cover. But, with only a few days for my son to hunt, and me with season splits thru the rest of the year, I decided not to commit us to the time it would take to deal with me killing a deer.
We watched these deer move off, and went on with our day. The rest of the morning was uneventful.
 
That evening, we walked into another spot I suspected would hold deer. On the way in, we bumped a doe and fawn, and a few minutes later, a decent 4x4 buck and fork horn. Not sure how they heard, saw or smelled us, as a stiff wind was in our face and we were hundreds of yards away, but nevertheless, we chalked this up to knowing a decent buck was in the area for my archery hunt and continued into the draw we intended to hunt. About an hour before dark, I spotted a few does, but they were a considerable distance away. We would need to go all the way down one draw and back up another to keep the wind right and enough terrain between us to get close. Without a minute to spare, we worked our way to the bottom. As we were just about to turn up hill for our final approach, I heard my son behind me say \"Dad, there\'s a...\" BOOM! The sound startled us both, but a plume of white smoke above the deer confirmed, another muzzy hunter had come in over the top of the rim rock (with bad wind, no less??) and shot at the same deer we were pursuing. Deer scattered everywhere, and there were plenty of does. If we had held tight where we had previously entered the top end of this draw, we would have had deer all over us. Drat. We walked out as prairie darkened. We did see the 4x4 again, not far from where we bumped him before, plus another decent buck on an adjacent property. Good to see, as I continued to \"scout\" for my archery hunt while I hunted with my son.

My son was surprisingly upbeat, even though both good encounters we had came up short. I guess it was better than seeing no deer at all, and he was still excited for the next day...
 
Sunday morning was considerably colder and windy. We set up that morning where we left off the night before, where we had seen the 4x4. The deer on the adjacent property included a few does, and I thought they might come back near our location to bed. As the sun rose, out popped the 4x4 and fork horn we had put to bed the night before, in nearly the exact spot we left them the previous night. They weren\'t out long before they went back into a heavily brushed draw. I again thought about making a play on this buck, in a very stalkable position, but kept my son\'s hunting time in perspective. With no other deer apparent at this location, we tried to hunt some draws that would offer cover from the wind. We bumped two does and a fawn, but they didn\'t hang around for a shot opportunity. By late morning, my sons asthma was acting up, and that put an end to our hunting weekend. He was off school the next day, but work and some other commitments would keep us from going hunting this day. We\'d have to wait until the following weekend...
 
didnt recognize you with the beard, lol. congrats, nothing better than ur kids success
 
Back at it Sat. 10/18. We walked in to the same spot we started the previous Saturday. This spot always seems to hold deer. So much so, we\'ve coined it \"The Deer Garden\", because sometimes it seems deer grow there and materialize out of nothing. No sooner than we hit a fence line that we planned to glass at first light, we see movement on the horizon. Sure enough, we watch the silhouettes of 3 small bucks, 2 does and a fawn quartering across the \"garden\". But something was different about these deer. Even with the dark silhouettes, there was enough light that I could tell they didn\'t have the whitish rumps of mule deer. We have never ever ever seen whitetail deer in this area, it is classic mule deer habitat. but I could pretty clearly see the brown tail with white fringe (they weren\'t alarmed and flagging). The deer quartered to the fence line we were next to, and the wind was in our faces, so we proceeded up the fence and over the hill to get a better look. Sure enough, once we slowly crested the rise, we saw/heard two of the bucks sparring in the draw below us. Eventually, we found the other does/fawn further along in the brushy. Long story short on this encounter, we made an attempt to get close to these deer once they bedded down in the brush. We did end up getting very close, but as whitetail will do when startled , they blew out without looking to see what rousted them.

We eventually kicked out a muley doe with two young fawns from the same brushy draw. These deer did stop and give us a good look at a broadside shot opportunity at 95 yards. I asked my son if he wanted to take it, but he declined, because of the young fawns (they looked like they dropped their spots just last week). I\'m proud of him for continuing to be patient and not taking a shot at the first deer that gave him the opportunity.

On with the day...
 
Yes those whitetails are skittish creatures. Sounds like you are seeing some deer keep at it.
 
With those opportunities not paying off, we circled back to our starting point to get the wind right again, and start hunting a draw to the north of us. I\'ve got a few game cameras scattered throughout these draws, so the plan was to slowly work down this draw, check cameras occasionally, then work back up another draw and do the same. The morning came and went without much more action, except for bumping a coyote.

As we bottomed out of one draw and circled to head back up the other, I had a feeling we\'d need to get some elevation to see anything bedded in the draw, so we sidehilled up the northside of this draw, getting high enough to get a good look in the draw, but not high enough to skyline us. As we crested one of the many small fingers semi-perpendicular to the main draw, we saw...another whitetail! This deer was in the bottom, 120 yards from us, and no antlers. Game on! But as we crept forward to a tree 20 yards in front of us (I wanted to get us to 100 yards), another unseen doe spotted us and boogered out. I thought we were done and already feeling disappointed in myself for not looking for more deer in that spot.

Nevertheless, we made it to the tree and peered over another small finger ridge. Our deer was still there, apparently not startled by the others deer commotion. We crawled out on the finger ridge and got my son into a prone position. Eventually, I got my pack out in front of him for a good rest. We sat and watched the deer\'s movement, and anticipated it would move into the draw bottom, in a spot nicely illuminated by the sun, amongst many tree shadows.

With the muzzleoader cocked and ready, we watched and waited, and the deer did exactly what we thought it would. At 100 yards out, I asked my son if he was ready. He said yes, and I told him when the deer reached the edge of the shadow, settle the open sights on the sweet spot, and let \'er rip.

BOOM!!!
 


^^^ This is the spot from which the shot was taken. The deer was just off screen to the left, left of the tree on the left edge. At the shot, I saw grass behind it move, and it immediately ran forward. I didn\'t see sign of a hit at firat, and thought maybe it was a miss. However, the deer ran about 40 yards and stopped. At first it just looked confused, like it didn\'t know where the shot came from or where to go. But a minute or so later, I could tell by its body language it was hit. I then could see a darker spot on its ribs, and it began to hunch up a bit. Then it layed down, head up. We sat and watched, now confident this deer was hit. After a few minutes, the deer began rocking its head back and forth, and we were pretty confident this deer was done, just needed to be patient and let it expire. After a a bit more of a struggle, the deer tried to stand, fell, and lay motionless.

If you look closely in the photo, the deer is laying just above the tip of the muzzleloader barrel, in the shadow line.
 




We shared a few high fives and fist bumps, and I congratulated him on a great shot. Right after the firsts shot, I grabbed the gun and loaded a second shot for him, but it was unnecessary. We were confident the deer was dead, but to give it a little more time, and allow my sons jitters to subside a bit (shaky hands :) ), we went down in the draw bottom to check one of my cameras. Then we made the careful walk toward the deer. I hung back and to the side to get a photo of him walking up. Yes, the second photo is staged to capture that angle, but I wanted to get this from multiple angles. After all, you only shoot your first deer once!
 
Congrats to you and your son.100 yards open sights for his first deer. Pretty impressive :upthumb:
 
Thanks guys. He\'s pretty proud. And I\'m proud of him :)

As it turns out, the deer was a little button buck, perfectly legal on the antlerless tag. A good start on his deer hunting career, and I\'m sure the first of many more deer (and bucks) to come!



 
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