Tennessee youth hunt

[wtnhunt]

Saturday morning got up, got my 10 year old up, we headed out just a little earlier than I normally go out. Hunting from a blind over a food plot, we got out about 45 minutes or so before legal shooting light, did not bump any deer on the way in, really thought we would see something, but we sat for 4 hours and never did see a thing. Saturday afternoon we were unable to go, but the conditions looked perfect.

Sunday morning got her up got ready, and we get up and settled in the stand about 30 minutes or so before legal shooting light. I decided at the last minute with the wind we would hunt the same field from a ladder stand blind that is easier to sneak into. She has sat this stand with me many times, but never her as the hunter. We had been up in the stand for just a few minutes, and I was setting up the video camera on the mount, and I look up and see a grey blob (what my daughter calls them) moving across the field about 100 yards out. It was headed towards the other blind we had hunted the morning before. I get my binoculars up and see it is a good deer, then I notice another deer moving behind him. Looked like a doe, turned out to be a little 4 pointer I have seen several times. First buck, as I am watching, I could see antlers in the dim light now without the binoculars and he is about 125 yards away now. Spread was good, probably about 2 inches outside his ears, decent tine length and the body size looked to be a 3.5 year old or better. As it got lighter, he headed to the end of the field, got as far as about 200 yards away. The other deer fed in our hamann farms grower plot for a while as the bigger buck was working the far edge of the field. I grunted, the little guy headed our way. The big buck looked up, went on to make a scrape just past the tree where I have our scrape dripper hanging with active scrape at the edge of our bean and sorghum plot. The little guy got in as close as about 10 yards from us and went around behind us, then jumped and came back around in front of us and fed in the clover in the old pennington clover plot in front of us.

The big buck started heading our way. Now the shooting light is marginal and he is headed straight on, got the rifle up and in position, I ask her is she can see through her scope, she says yes, but is having a hard time with the dim light. He never turned good until he got to about 20 yards from us right at the top of the ridge out in front of us, then angled to the little buck who was now about 10 yards away to our left, and I am sitting on her left. The two sparred for a minute which was kind of funny to see. The bigger buck was considerably bigger than the small 4 point. My daughter has the rifle up, I am telling her to take the safety off and take her shot when she can. She whispers I cannot get on him. I look and the rifle is up too high sitting on the rail for her body sitting in the seat I normally sit in for her to be able to aim down at the deer where he is at so close in. I tell her to slowly ease up and stand up to get into position, she tells me she cant. I watch this 10 pointer and realize it is the same deer that I had drawn on with my bow. Now the buck is starting to head away from us towards the woods to our left. I tell her again to stand up to get in position and take her shot when he turns, she says she cannot stand up with the rifle. Now the deer is near the edge of the woods and heading away, I knew there was a chance he might follow the edge of the woods about 90-100 yards away from us and thought she might get another opportunity. The deer did, but was too dim in her scope that far away for her to feel comfortable with the shot. I watched this all happen in disbelief as the deer went into the woods right under the tree my climber is hung from. We stayed out for a couple hours after the deer were gone, and never saw anything else.

Sunday afternoon was warm and the wasps and mosquitoes were terrible. Had to close the windows to keep the wasps out and I was sweating terribly. We sat the box blind over our grower plot hoping the big buck would show back up to feed or check the scrapes right before dark. We had a one and a half year old 6 pointer I had not seen before come out about an hour before dark and was only 45 yards away, got the windows open and had the deer in her scope, decided to pass as we were hearing movement in the woods behind us. Got good video footage of that deer, I grunted a few times then about 5 minutes after we last see that deer Christina tells me there is a deer. I turn and look and she has a deer out the window to her left about 30 yards away coming around up the hill. She says there is another one behind it. I see a body on the second one barely through the limbs. The first deer takes its time and finally comes out into the plot. Was the same 4 pointer we had seen that morning, and now we are really thinking the big 10 pointer was probably the deer behind him. I ask her if she can tell what it is, she says it has antlers and is bigger in the body than the other one, but she cannot tell if it is the buck from this morning. Well the other buck ended up going down the hill behind us and we never got a good look at it. The 4 pointer worked his way across the field. The 4 pointer ended up at our scrape dripper and he put on quite a show for us there. He raked his antlers shaking the dripper then licked the dripper and the ground. Best part, we watched it together, and I got it all on video.

[TOMSD5]

Re: Tennessee youth hunt

soundslike an exciting but hard hunt will...same thing happened here ...deer movement was low ...but the grandson took a small doe sunday evening...

[wtnhunt]

Re: Tennessee youth hunt

Just posted some pics in here from the video clips in another thread. I sure hope she gets a shot on a good deer.

[horst]

Re: Tennessee youth hunt

Sounds like time well spent.Hope she gets a shot at him, good luck to both of you