BritSaz

We had such a great time on my son's first big game hunt. The youth camp was AMAZING. Everyone was so nice. They were so willing to donate their time to help all the youth have a successful hunt and the food was delicious. My dad was able to go with us on this hunt but he is used to hunting near Flagstaff in the pines so this was very different for him. Opening day we went out by ourselves just to see what we could do. We got a few pointers from the people at camp on where to start. My dad was not used to glassing he is used to hiking with little glassing. In 22 it was all about glassing and little hiking. We saw a couple white tail doe but nothing else. Day 2 we decided to have a mentor go with us. (He was amazing!) We were able to get on a couple bucks in the morning but they were already being stocked by two other hunters but we waited to see if they would come our way. The two othere hunters missed 6-7 times before the deer even ran the opposite way. Others are missing left and right. My son was getting discouraged because he couldn't even get a shot. I gave him a pep talk and he was ready again. Sunday was the last day we had our mentor. Same thing happened we glasses a buck and by the time we were ready to stock someone was already shooting at him and missed. We went back to camp dropped our mentor off ( he had to get back home) and grabbed a quick bite. We went back out by this time it was HOT we knew they would not be moving around so our best bet was to hike and jump one. We walked a couple miles up and down ridges and were heading back to the truck when a velvet spike jumped out of nowhere. We got my son set up on his shooting sticks by this time the buck was on the other side a ridge and moving fast my dad whistled and it stopped and looked. My son said "I have a shot" we told him to take it. 300 yards away, 1 shot dropped him where he stood. I was so proud of him. I am grateful my dad was able to be there and to pack that deer out a mile back to the truck 😜. I am grateful to our mentor and wish he could have been there to see it and i thankful for everone at camp that helped with whatever they needed. Now we are in Flagstaff helping my other son fill his cow tag.

Hey!! We did meet at the camp. You helped us glass the day after your son got his buck. I was with my dad, my son Joe, and Marvin. We were there when that kid missed those two bedded bucks. everyone hopped into our truck to look for them. Congrats on your sons first buck!!