On the hunt...

Have I told you about taking M on his first Hunt?

No?

Of course, I know I haven't, because I haven't written it yet, but its a good way to start out a story and get you interested right from the bat.

See I'm cunning that way...

D's uncle offered us a chance to go hunting on his land back during deer season, and I jumped at the chance to take M on his first hunt.

I even bought a new gun as something he could keep to remember the first time by.  of course, I never realized what an impact that would have on this trip.

We got everything ready ahead of time, licenses, warm clothes packed, and got the gun sighted in at the range.  All was ready.

We headed to the farm the weekend before thanksgiving.  Saturday afternoon we headed out to the deer blind and got setup and quiet.

and waited

and waited

and waited

for those of you that may not have hunted before.  Its a lot of being quiet and waiting.  

so the point is we waited

I did manage to take this action shot of M.  Do you see him there?  you know what he is doing?

Yep, he's waiting.

Nope, didnt need a high speed shutter to capture that action..

anyway

The weather wasnt that cold, and it was pretty comfortable up in the blind.  It is in a great spot and we can easily see 3 corn feeders within about a 100 yard range of the blind.

As it got darker the deer started to show up, eating their way across the food plot and some eating around the feeders.

Then we see a buck come into view, we watch him for awhile and are finally able to get him to turn the right way and we can see he is a good legal buck.  (for those of you out there that dont know, there are rules of when you can hunt, what you can shoot, etc.  Its not just a drunken free for all)

M gets lined up on that buck, takes his shot

and misses.

which of course scared the deer away, and not too long after that it was dark.  We climbed down, checked to make sure there was no blood trail to be sure we missed him, and then headed in.

Sunday afternoon we head back out and get setup in the blind and waited for the sun to start setting.  As it got darker, the deer came

looking for a buck, looking for a buck.  See one, but he's too small.  no way he's legal.

Finally a good buck comes into range, M gets him in his scope, take a shot.  Misses again.

Now, let me take a side bar here.  Out of the 3 people in my family.  I am the worst shot, and I can shoot pretty well.  M, well he can shoot the wings off a gnat at 100 yards.  So needless to say I was quite frustrated with what is going on here.

I grab the gun and shoot and I see the bullet goes nowhere near where the scope was pointed.

dammit!

we climb down and head in.

The next morning we go over to a friend of D's uncle, who has a backyard range and sure enough the scope is totally out of whack.  I get it sighted in, take a few shots and we can tell there is something wrong.  Each time a shot is sent down range, the alignment changes.  We check all the mounting and such and cant find anything out of whack, but something is definitely out of whack.

We ended up using another rifle for the next couple of days sitting in the stand, but never saw another buck to shoot.

My decision to buy a new rifle so M would have something to remember his first hunt by worked I guess.  he will never forget that the screwed up rifle caused him to miss the first 2 deer he shot at.

I will say that he and I had a great time in that deer stand and I would not trade that time for the world.  Next year I will make sure we go hunting with a rifle worth a damn.

Cherry Pie
DD