Lunch is usually soup and sandwiches, and lots of talk about what we had all seen, where we heard shots from, and what the plan was going to be for later. Brian and Zach hadn't seen anything either.
The four of us did a little push of the narrow hedgerow behind our house in hope that a big old and wise buck had sought solitude and safety there. A smart deer will do that...he will get himself into a place where you wouldn't think a deer would be. He could hide there all day. No one would ever find him. Nope. He wasn't in our hedgerow.
"Ok Cam, lets head to the spot where we can sit for the rest of the evening.
We gathered our things and all four of us loaded into the car. Brian and Zach got dropped off on the way, at the spot they wanted to sit and Cameron and I headed to our spot. I wasn't really sure where exactly our spot would be. We had already had a good day, no deer, but still a great morning together. I just wanted her to see something. Doe or buck, just a deer would be great. Maybe let her scope it a bit. It's kind of like fishing and not even getting a bite. If you don't get something back out of what you put into it, even a nibble, it just isn't as fun.
"Hmmmmmm." I said. "Where to go?" I decided to drive back in the direction of a place that has become affectionately called HELL HOLLOW between my hunting friends. It's called that because trying to get through it is probably what it is like trying to get out of Hell. Thick, nasty, full of thorns and by the time you make it through, you feel like you were kicked repeatedly by a mule. It's a place where a deer can get cover when the pressure of hunters is all around them. Not many would venture into it. It's a safe-haven. I wasn't planning on taking her into it, but we could sit above it and glass the area like a sniper would do. There are always plenty of deer there, you just have to wait them out in hopes that they come out to feed." Yup, that is where we are headed." I said as my thoughts turned to words.
We were coming up the final stretch of dirt road with the outskirts of the hollow to our right, and BAM...there was a doe standing just feet from the car amongst the multiflora rose bushes and blow-downs. She looked straight at us. "THERE'S ONE DADDY!" Cameron exclaimed excitedly. "I see her, a little doe. Now look around and see if she has any friends with he..." I replied. I pulled the car forward a little, pulled off the dirt road and stopped. "I'm going to get out and see what I can see real quick." I stated. As soon as I shut the car door behind me, about 8 deer jumped up from the brush and all I could see were the big white tails waving as the deer ran for thicker cover. Just then a nice 6 point buck burst out into the field and stopped, looked back at us and paused there for a few seconds. "There's a BUCK!" Cameron shouted. "I see him, he's a six point." I replied. A second later he was tail up and following the doe. I jumped back into the car and said "THIS is where we want to hunt." "Could I have shot that one?" Cameron asked. "Yup, if we were in the right place at the right time you could have, but you can't shoot them from the car or the road."
We pulled the car up into the tractor access road and put it in park. We quickly gathered all of our gear we were going to take and headed into the hedgerow that looked down into the thick stuff. We are on a hillside, with a row of trees behind us, looking down over a cut corn field. There is a hedgerow below us that leads out of Hell Hollow towards the road. On the opposite side of it is another field that leads back up the hill to another tree line. Its protected from wind and people. A deer haven. Immediately we saw deer moving in the thick underbrush of the thicket. You could see them for a few seconds, and then you couldn't. Then you could see them again in the next clearing. "You can scope those deer." I said. I gave her the rifle and she tried to hold it up but it was a little large for her. "Wait, I will make you a shooting stand. Go back there behind us and grab a nice big stick." She quickly grabbed about a four foot long stick that was about twice the thickness of a broom handle. "Brilliant" I said. "We have to break it down a bit." I stood up and pushed my boot down on it and pulled up as I grasped it tightly in my hands. Cameron was there looking down to see if she could see any deer as I broke the branch in half. It almost broke in two pieces, but there was a bit of bark holding them together. "Even better!" I bent it into a V shape and turned it upside down. A natural bipod. She could rest the rifle on top of it and by widening or narrowing the two ends, we could make it taller or shorter. She sat there and then tried to get adjusted to it that way. "Can you see?" I asked. "Uh huh, But it's a little tricky....wait..I see one!" she said. "Get on it. Can you put the cross hairs on it? Can you see it clearly?" I hit her with a bunch or questions really quick. I was getting excited now. So was she. "It's a buck!! Probably the one we just kicked out." The deer moved quickly in and out of clear shooting areas of the thicket, following a doe. "ONLY take a shot if it's clear."
The deer was moving so quickly that when she finally found him in the scope, he would move. "UGGGGH! He keeps moving as soon as I get him into the scope. He was there sideways to me but that big dumb tree was covering his shoulder!" she said. "Patience sweetie, as long as the doe are there he isn't going anywhere."
Over the next 20 minutes we saw several doe and two buck, a five point and a spike, milling around following the doe. The doe were all walking in big circles because they didn't want to leave the spot, but those buck would NOT leave them alone. Then, the deer all then disappeared. We couldn't see any. They had gone back into the thicket and most likely bedded down. Minutes later, up the side of the thicket on the hillside, 3 more doe came out. "Wait Cam, here come some more, and chances are there is going to be a buck behind them." She scoped them and scoped them, looked for antlers. It was amazing actually that in the time we were in that spot, there hadn't been a dull moment We kept seeing deer. Then from the top hedgerow, two deer came running into the field immediately after we heard a few shots from that direction. Both small doe, and one was an piebald. "Oh my God Cameron, LOOK! A piebald deer!" "Can I shoot it?" she asked. "NO, you don't have a doe tag." I replied. "Why not?!" was I that I got back. "Next year honey, I didn't even know you wanted to hunt until last night, and you can't just buy them over the counter.
Our hearts were both pounding and it was non-stop excitement. Buck, doe, white deer. I kept having to remind her that she could''t shoot a buck unless it had at least 3 points on one side. (In hind sight, I was WRONG about that part and she could have taken any of the spikes we had seen that day.)
The evening drew on, and as it did, the doe started making their way back into the field to feed. "Ok, this is where we might get your shot. We need him to be right down in that area. The open field, not up on the hill, but closer to the bottom hedge row, which is about 175 yards. The spike buck (two of them) were milling around behind the doe. The doe would feed until they were pushed from the corn by the buck pressuring them. They would move and the buck would then move. Cameron was scoping them the entire time. "Please, please, please Lord, please let a nice buck come out and HOLD STILL." She prayed aloud. It seems Cameron was more like her Father than I realized. I chuckled to myself at that moment and immediately went into thoughts of reflection, and realization that my daughter had caught the bug. She had become elated with the anticipation, the hopes of maybe getting a shot at something, but more so, the whole experience.
It was getting later and a legal buck had not stuck his head into our shooting range down in the far field when all of a sudden, the five point comes from the top hedge row. He was making his way to the doe, who were slowly coming down the far hill towards the middle tree line and closer to us. "Here he comes, there's your buck. If he keeps on the path he is on, he will be in good range for you to shoot, and he is a legal buck Cameron." "Ok, ok, ok.ooohhhhh please please please!" she urged out loud as she was nervously trying to get him into her sights.
Just about the time the buck was almost into the clearing in the trees, at about 170 yards, I stopped her. "Wait wait wait!" I shouted in a whisper (most of you know what that means lol). Just to the left of where the five point buck now was, I noticed another deer coming out of the top tree line. " OH BOY CAMERON, here comes Mr. Big. Big buck, big big buck....don't shoot that one, this one is coming right down to the same spot. He will be in that same clearing any minute!" The big buck's rack was so big I could see it at 250 yards across the hollow and he was on the move. Running off the little buck that were in his way with a mere shake of his rack. Cameron was breathing fast and short and heavy all at the same time, eyes glued to the scope and maneuvering the rifle on the make-shift tripod. "I can see him I can see him! Oh Daddy, please, please." She said as if I had control over where the deer would walk or had some authority over whether or not she would get a shot. He was still on the move, headed closer and to our right, towards the break in the trees where she could get a clear shot at about 150 yards. I thought to myself I should just let her take the 150 yard shot. What's the worst thing that could happen? She would miss?
"Ok Cameron, you see where the doe are? Hold at that spot, when he gets into it I will get him to stop and then you will have only a few seconds to get put the cross-hairs on him. " Ok" she said, in a fearful voice, excited, nervous, but determined and compliant to all of my instructions. Seconds later the buck walked on the opening. "BAAAAAAAAAAH" I said loudly. The buck stopped dead in his tracks, broad side to us and he looked up towards us with ears spread wide. His rack was out to his ears. "Click" was the sound of the safety of the rifle. "There's your shot, take it if you have it." I said. BOOOOOOM, the sound of the high powered rifle rung out. She had pulled the trigger.
This is the part of the story where I have to say that at this point, I felt like I was holding the gun. My daughter was holding it, but it might as well had been me. My heart pounding in my chest, and I had forgotten that I was assisting a ten year old. It could have been my brother Brian, or friend Jarvis but it wasn't either of them. It was my daughter and she had just shot at a buck that was bigger than most of the deer I had ever gotten in almost 30 years of hunting.
The buck kicked his back legs like a bucking bronco as soon as the shot fired. "Holy sh*t, you got him Cameron!" I jumped up from my crouching position, grabbed the rifle and ran to the dirt road. I had to run down the road to try to cut the deer off or see where he ran, hoping he didn't run to another hunter. "COME ON!" I yelled back to her. "Woo hoo woo hoo, yes, yes, yes!" as she was doing her little dance, not even paying attention to me. We call that the
Deer Dance of Joy" around these parts as it commonly happens when one harvests a nice buck. It usually happens when you are actually AT the expired animal and not before you even know if he is down or not, but Cameron chose to do it right away.
I saw him drop Daddy!"
I was still at full speed down the dirt road to where I thought I would cut the deer off if they crossed the road and if he was wounded I could see which direction he was headed. I came to a screeching halt when I came around the bend, scanning quickly all around for running deer when I saw the white belly in the field to my left. He maybe had gone 50 more yards from where she shot him and he dropped. I could see the wide beams of his rack as he lay in the field. I was in shock. Disbelief, pride, elation. She caught up to me at this point finally. "There he is baby, there's YOUR BUCK laying right over there, I can't believe it." "Woo Hooo!" she replied.
With my eye on the prize, and my sweet baby-girl huntress on my heels, I made it thru the thick brush and stream that stood between us and the deer. We hit the field and ran right over to him. "PERFECT SHOT CAM!" I yelled. She had listened to me all day about how the front shoulder is where you want to aim, the whole way to the final moment. There he lay, in all of his majestic beauty, without having to suffer. I immediately raised my head to the sky with a slight tear in my eye. "Thank you." Was all I said.
Out of all the years I have hunted, this was the best day ever. The best hunt, the best hunting partner, and the best success. Thank you Bill Males, my Dad, for taking ME hunting when I was 12. It has been passed on to another generation.
