fun day hunting with my 8yo son

The deer season is almost over here in Pa. Here in the special reg's area I still have a chance to fill my buck tag if I use my bow, but we can shoot doe only with a shotgun till the end of the month. So for the past few weekends I told my 8 year old son we'd go sit in the blind for a bit, taking both the bow and the shotgun(Savage 220 ;) ;D), figuring if a buck came close enough I could fill my tag, but if it was a doe we'd try to get him his first deer.We havent been able to go the past 2 weekends due to my FIL being in the hospital, but yesterday we had an opportunity.

Even though the weather was cold my son said he still wanted to go out. Theres about 4 inches of snow in the woods(which would help him see alot better), but the temperature was about 10-15 degrees :o. I was unsure if he'd be able to last the whole day, so we waited till noon and just hunted the afternoon/evening. I decided to leave the bow at home and make this hunt all about trying to get him a shot.

We ended up not sitting in the blind, and instead sat on the crest of a hill where we could see down thru the woods in all directions. About an hour or so into the hunt we saw 3 doe about 80 or so yards away, but they were hangin back into the brush and all we could really see was a front half of deer here, tail there,etc., but nothing far enough out in the clear for him to take a good shot. We sat and watched them for about 10-15 minutes and they just wouldnt step into the open(another 30ft woulda done it). All of a sudden something down in the bottom of the woods spooked the deer and they all took off running thru the woods, almost right at us. The wild thing is that it wasnt 3 deer that came out, but more like 12-15 deer!!! After I put my sons eyes back into his head :D we tried to get him on one but with it being in the woods he just couldnt keep one in the scope long enough to shoot, so we let them run by us about 40 yards away. Needless to say he was excited to get that chance, and couldnt wait to see more.

We sat for a bit and saw nothing, and he(we ;)) was getting cold, so I thought we could walk the top of the woods to see if we could catch up to the other deer and maybe spot them down in the woods somewhere. Well, we didnt spot the deer as they musta crossed the open field, but did end up jumping up 3 other doe as we were walking, but I had the gun in hand.

All in all, it may have been the best couple hours of hunting that Ive ever had cause he was VERY close to taking a shot. I hope to get out with him once more before the season ends next weekend.


Little Pdog with our Savage 220f

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...0122111353.jpg

Saver these times with your son just you and him, the best times i remember were the times i spent with my father and brother hunting, fishing and working on our cars together.
Your son will remember these times also even if he doesn't say so very often because soon enough he will find out what GIRLS are really for and the times you spend with him and any brothers or sisters will get less and less so keep these times for when you need them when you are older.

Best of luck to your son. He's a cute kid.

Days like that are great, you never forget them. Glad to see a kid out hunting!

-Jake