Still waiting for the G&F to start charging credit cards so I thought I would share the story and pics of my son's (deerhunter98) first deer from a few years ago. I put him in for the AZ youth deer hunts, but he didn't draw so I bought him and I leftover muzzle loader mule deer hunts in NM Unit 23 so he could deer hunt when he was 10. I still remember going on my first deer hunt with my dad when I was 10 like it was yesterday. We went down a few days early to do some scouting and found a bachelor group of 5 bucks the first morning we scouted. That afternoon we saw 2 more good bucks so things were looking good for opening day.
We spent some time at the range and Derrik was consistent with the muzzleloader out to 100 yards. At the time I only had one muzzleloader and didn't think it would matter since we would be together. I figured we would hunt for him a buck and if he got one I would try and get mine. I should have explained this plan to him before we actually started hunting.
Opening morning came and we went to where the bachelor bucks had last been seen and they were no where to be found. They were in an open area so we could glass forever, but just couldn't pick them up so we moved over to where the 2 other bucks were and couldn't find them either. It was getting a little late in the morning, but we decided to try another area that we saw some does in a couple days before. We parked the quad and walked over the first ridge and right on top there were 5 deer looking at us. They were only 60-70 yards away and I could see the deer on the right was a 3X3. I get the gun ready to shoot and tell Derrik "the deer on the the right is a good buck shoot it". He says "no I'm afraid I'll miss you take that one and we find another buck for me". I didn't have time to explain my plan to him because the deer were starting to get nervous. I shot the buck and it went about 10 yards and laid down. It wasn't dead so I started reloading the gun, but the primer was stuck and I couldn't get it out. I'm trying to figure out how to get this primer out and Derrik says "dad there is a bigger buck" I look up and see the bigger buck that had been behind the only tree around. Now I am frantically trying get this primer out so I dig my keys out of my pocket and pry it out, get the gun loaded, and hand it to Derrik. He fires and misses. I take the gun back and the primer is stuck again. I pry it out, load the gun again, and hand it back to him. The buck had moved about 25 yards and the rest of the deer were already out of sight. He shoots again and the buck falls completely over and lands on its side. I reach over and give him a high five and look back up and the buck is running off.
I look over at my buck and his head is down and he looks like he is dead so we walk up to where his buck was when he shot. We pick up a good blood trail on his buck so I tell him that we will go gut my deer out and and give his buck some time. We walk back over to where my buck was and it is gone. I looked over and said "I don't know how, but we went from having 2 bucks down to none in a matter of seconds". It always amazes me when I hunt how I can go from being so high to so low in a matter of seconds. My buck had laid down right on the edge of a scrub oak thicket, but there was no blood trail after it got up so we weren't sure which way it went. Derrik started making some passes above where the buck was and I made passes below looking for any sign. I walked a couple of circles and all of the sudden the buck jumps up 5ft in front of me but I couldn't see it because of all the scrub oak. It heads straight down this steep hill and doesn't present a shot. I watch the bottom and the other side, but the buck never makes it that far so I knew he laid back down somewhere between me and the bottom. I make my way down and jump him again. From there I could see all the way to the bottom and the buck hit the bottom and turned which gave me a shot. I fired and of course I miss. I reach in my pocket and find that I have now used all of my quick loads. Derrik has the pack with more powder/bullets, but he is a hundred yards above me. I yell for him to get down there while watching the buck. This time I see that the buck has bedded under a cedar tree three hundred yards away. Derrik gets down there and I re-load the gun and all of my quick loads. We move closer while watching the buck and it jumps back up at 100 yards. I get a shot and finally put this buck down for good.
Where this buck was laying originally it would have been a piece of cake to get out, but now it is at the bottom of this steep canyon. I send Derrik back with all of the gear to the quad and I drag this buck out of the canyon and back to the quad. Looking back I should have quartered it out, but I didn't. We get that buck loaded and I get all of the gear situated. I notice my binoculars are missing and we decide not to go back and look for them then (they are still on the side of that canyon somewhere). We get back to where Derrik shot his buck and pick up the blood trail. He is walking in front of me with the gun, but I tell him surely his buck has expired. We follow the trail about 100 yards and his buck jumps up and takes off for the canyon off the other side. Luckily he shoots and puts it down before it drops off and happens to die near another road that we can get the quad to.
We get his buck loaded up and now I am nervous driving this quad with 2 deer and both of us. The truck is 5 rough miles away, but somehow we make it. Once we were in the truck I finally asked him why he didn't want to shoot that first buck. He had been hunting with me the previous 2 years down in the desert and knew that sometimes we would hunt for 4-5 days before finding a buck and he didn't want to miss and neither of us get one. I told him that I didn't care if I got one, but wanted him to have an opportunity. We should have had that discussion before the hunt, but it worked out.
A lot of lessons learned on this hunt, but there isn't a memory sweeter than pulling a double with your son on his first deer hunt with a single muzzleloader. Sorry about the long read. I love the picture of him with his long sleeve shirt on that is inside out and backwards. In his defense it was dark when he got dressed and he did have camo over it when we started out. He was all smiles on the way back to camp and 2 other groups of hunters stopped us on the way back to camp to check out his buck. This was his best buck until this year.
