The Bug House Posted December 13, 2019 Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 Oh man, I will never live this one down. As I mentioned in my last post my 2 older kids passed hunter safety this Summer and had been shooting my AR15 regularly. They both took right to it and could consistently achieve nice tight groups at 75 and 100 yds. Youth weekend rolls around and my daughter had a scheduling conflict so she opted to get out with me later on in the season. So my 10 y/o son and I were in the woods (Private land I've been hunting for several years now) before light. It was around 10 above so we could only sit for about 90 minutes before we had to move. We worked our way to a perfect spot just below where I know they like to bed. He sets up leaning against a chest height rock, and has a nice soft moss covered rest. Due to my daughters sport schedule, I had been able to spend a lot more time with him scouting and handling the rifle, I am very confident of his ability. (and about 100 times as proud ... lol) So we sat for about 10 minutes and I decided to grunt softly ... immediately a little 5 point buck comes right out and is staring at us, broadside, at 40 yards. He had that thing zeroed in an instant. I'm just standing there in disbelief, whispering to my boy to "breathe then shoot ... breathe then shoot" I can hear him steady his breathing, focus, and CLICK! I just about died on the spot. I instantly knew it was because eased the bolt in as to be quiet and we never tapped the forward assist. This was over a month ago and I am still kicking myself. He lived up to his responsibility 100% and I let him down. No doubt in my mind he would've killed that deer. He, on the other hand, took it like a true sportsman ... he looked at me and said "boy that buck got lucky!" I am so proud of him, he told me that I taught him that in a situation like that, the deer deserves to live. I can't say I remember telling him that, but we had quite the moment in the woods together to say the least. Neither one of us will ever forget it! With any luck we'll be talking about it at camp for many years to come. He came within a hair of shooting a buck before his Daddy. (That opportunity is gone BTW! I'll make another post about that). The silver lining is that we gained a sportsman for life, he is absolutely addicted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted December 13, 2019 Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 Too bad about that bug, but still sounds like a good time. Fwiw I don't suggest youth hunting deer with anything smaller than a .243. Really asking a lot for them to make great shot placement. Have heard horror stories of kids having their potential first deer lost with .223's. Be sure to check some of the other threads here. Been some really nice bucks taken by members and their kids this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bug House Posted December 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 27 minutes ago, wtnhunt said: Too bad about that bug, but still sounds like a good time. Fwiw I don't suggest youth hunting deer with anything smaller than a .243. Really asking a lot for them to make great shot placement. Have heard horror stories of kids having their potential first deer lost with .223's. Be sure to check some of the other threads here. Been some really nice bucks taken by members and their kids this year. Yea, I definitely hear you there. I was initially hesitant but after some research about the .223 deer rounds and him proving himself at the range I felt far more comfortable. We also spent quite some time discussing acceptable range and the importance of shot placement with that caliber. He understood he would not shoot unless the perfect shot presented itself ... and wouldn't you know it ... lol I did acquire a Ruger .44 mag carbine just before the season, my daughter carried it the one time we made it out. She had more time once the season started to practice with it, but they'll both use it next year for sure. In fact I shot my first buck with it last week! You're right about that one, some nice ones taken by kiddos this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted December 13, 2019 Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 Weird sometimes how things go. I had a slip and fall walking down the steep trail from my stand one afternoon a couple weeks ago. Fell pretty hard on the slick wet ground and hit my scope and gun. Few days later checked my scope, it was a little high but was at 50 yards. Shot again and had a click. These are handloads I loaded in 2017. I looked at the round and the primer was dinged, weird should have went off. I remembered I sat in the freezing rain in 2018 with the same rounds in the gun. I had sat the day I fell also in the rain. Not sure why the round did not ignite. I tried another and it hit same height as the first, then racked in another to have another no fire. I ended up loading 10 fresh rounds to take the remainder of this season. Now, had I been in the stand and had not checked my gun, there might have been one of those no fire rounds in the chamber and possible I could have had a click. Sometimes luck breaks in our favors and sometimes goes the other way. Good luck to your son and daughter in the future, hope you will come back and share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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