It is no secret to those who know me best that I have long dreamed of being able to carry my own children deer hunting. I have known since I killed my first deer at age 10, that nothing would compare to being able to share that thrill with my own kids. Obviously, it is impossible to grow up in the Barnes house without being exposed to all-things hunting. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see them get so excited about my hunting successes. I am always quick to answer their questions, I encourage them whenever they show interest, but have always been careful not to push them into hunting just because I want them to like it.
So after both girls killed turkeys this past Spring (Elizabeth, Molly), and both started asking "when can we go deer hunting?", I decide that they were ready. Fast forward to a sunny, Sunday afternoon this past October - it was time to shoot the "deer gun". Elizabeth went first & did great! She was shooting my TC Contender Carbine in 6.8mm SPC. For those of you not familiar with that caliber, it is basically a .223 on steroids. It is a .30 Carbine casing necked down to hold a .270 bullet. Developed jointly by Remington & our Military, it offers basically the same ballistics & felt recoil (almost none) as the .223, but with greater down range energy. A PERFECT deer caliber for kids! We were shooting at about 50 yards & Elizabeth was able to put 2 just above the bullseye! When it got to be Molly's turn, she decided not to shoot. For some reason, the thought of shooting a rifle scared her even though I assured her that it was not near as loud nor would kick near as hard as the shotgun that she was used to. But that was ok - I gave her a hug & told her we would try again as soon as she got ready.
Tennessee offer s a early Juvenile (kids only) hunt every year. For 2010, the early Juvenile deer hunt weekend was scheduled to be Oct. 31st & Nov. 1st. I knew we wouldn't get to hunt Saturday because of a soccer tournament during the day & trick-or-treating that night. We had Church Sunday morning & I was unsure about Sunday afternoon. So I didn't even mention Juvenile weekend to Elizabeth - I just told her that we had a long season ahead of us & would do our best to get her a deer. Thankfully the planets aligned & by Saturday night it looked like I had everything worked out to be able to take her hunting the next afternoon. I didn't tell her right away just in case something fell through.
Right after Church, I told her to go get dressed cause we were going hunting. "We're going DEER hunting... TODAY?!!!' she asked very excited. I had 2 different spots in mind - one where she would be pretty much guaranteed a close shot at a doe but chances of seeing a buck were pretty slim. I felt like our chances of seeing a buck at the 2nd spot were just as good as seeing a doe, but anything we saw might be too far for her to shoot. I explained the pros & cons of both stands to Elizabeth & let her make the decision. She didn't hesitate - she wanted a buck! So off we went to Rick's farm at Mimosa.
We had been in the shooting house for nearly 2 hours when the first doe stepped out. I was surprised when Elizabeth barely even looked up from the book that she was reading to look at the doe. I thought "wow she really does just want a buck - not even excited about a doe". She later told me that she didn't want to look at the does because it made her too nervous since she was so excited :)) By about 30 minutes before dark, we had a field full of deer but no bucks. Elizabeth surprised me again by saying "I really just want to kill a deer - I don't want to wait on a buck". Well OK sounds good to me! The closest does were about 50 yards behind us so we slowly stood up in the shooting house, got turned around, opened the window, and eased the gun out. Poor little Elizabeth just fell to pieces! She was so nervous she just couldn't get the gun on them before they fed out of our sight. That ok - let's try another one. We still had plenty of deer out front so we turned around again & slipped the gun out the front window.
The deer weren't nervous at all - just slowly moving around the field as they fed. We finally got settled down & were trying to get the crosshairs steady on a big doe when she threw her head up & looked into the woods behind her. I knew what that probably meant so I told Elizabeth to wait just a minute to see what else was coming. Sure enough about a minute later another deer stepped out & this time it was a BUCK! I helped Elizabeth get the gun steady again & told her to squeeze the trigger when she got ready. I was expecting to hear the gun go off any second when she looked up & said "I can't do it - I'm too nervous!" I told her "yes you can baby, just like we practiced... are you on him?" She said she was. "Then SHOOT HIM - NOW!" BOOM! He dropped in his tracks! I couldn't believe it! The rest is kind of a blur - I just remember grabbing & hugging her saying "you GOT him baby girl - I'm so proud of you!"
Yep, it was just as good as I had dreamed! Absolutely, without a doubt THE best deer hunt I had ever been a part of! Little did I know that history would repeat itself just a couple of short months later. Stay tuned... ;)
I am so glad you finally posted this! I love hearing the story through your writing.
Posted by: Brandi | January 12, 2011 at 07:07 PM