Long Read:
Long about the first of the year I decided that this was the year to put my youngest son Dakota in for a chance at his first Big Game hunt. Being retired Military and having access to hunt down at Ft. Huachuca we decided that the November Jr. hunt would be his best bet. He and I filled out the application and sent it away, and settled in for the long wait. When the draw results came out and he found out he had been drawn he was so excited he could hardly contain himself.
Now that we knew he had been drawn we set out to find a Hunters Safety Course for him to attend as he is under the age of 14 and not only a State requirement, but a requirement on Fort Huachuca. We found a Combo course being taught by Bob Bonko and his team down at the PSE factory in Tucson. Now as this was a Combo Course the students went through not on the Basics, but also went through Archery, Black powder, Pistols, and Rifles and took part in 2 separate Field Days . My thanks to Bob and his team for making the class enjoyable and taking the time to make sure the students got the information they needed to help them be the safest, most ethical hunters they could possibly be.
Hunters Safety completed, we now set out on a search for the rifle he would be shooting. Dakota had never shot anything larger than a .22 so I decided to take him out and let him get comfortable with a NEF Handi Rifle in .223 that I had in the gun safe. At the range he was able to fire the rifle with great accuracy and I decided that the .223 was the one. Having made that choice I decided to research on what other Coues hunters though about using a .223, I did not like what I was reading and began to seriously reconsider the choice I had made. In talking with a friend of mine at work, he recounted how a friend of his taught his daughter to shoot a 30-06 using Managed Recoil ammunition and once she was comfortable with the rifle and confident in her ability to shoot and shoot accurately, her father replaced the Managed Recoil ammo with standard factory loads and while she was shooting at he first Buck she never knew the difference. That was my Plan!
We loaded up the family and a close friend one Saturday and headed out to our favorite shooting place and were confident that Dakota could handle the 30-06 and made sure that through our discussion we were mentally shoring him up for the task at hand. At the range I zeroed the rifle at 50 yards, then moved out to 100 and let Dakota have a go. Much to my surprise, all of his shot were consistently in the black area of the target, grouped tight enough that we both felt confident that he could accurately take a deer out to 200 yards. I then secretly fired a few factory rounds and adjusted the zero for the factory rounds. While at the range I noticed that Dakota had some trouble steadying the rifle and looked into some different options and finally purchased a TriClawps gun clamp to let Dakota use in hopes that it would allow him to steady the rifle a bit more.
In the weeks leading up to Dakotas hunt I spoke in length with a good friend about my best options down at Fort Huachuca in regards to areas to focus our attention to. He gave me his advice and also let me know that he would be down for the hunt as well as his youngest son also had the Junior hunt. In one of our many conversation I mentioned to him that if they came across a buck that his son did not want to shoot (his son had taken a few decent bucks in previous years) please keep us in mind and give us a call and we’d come and give it a try.
We loaded up the trailer and waited for Grandpa to make the drive down to Tucson from Mesa. Once Grandpa had arrived we loaded ourselves in the truck and headed off. We arrived at Fort Huachuca early in the afternoon on the 10th and got ourselves situated. Once the trailer was all set up we headed out to the area we intended on hunting on opening day to do a little glassing . While we were out we spotted 7 does and 2 fawns but no bucks. We returned to the trailer at dark and had a nice bowl of Beef Stew for dinner, then enjoyed to stories of deer hunts passed in hopes of keeping Dakota excited about the task at hand.
The Alarm went off at 0500 opening morning and we stumbled out of the beds and got ourselves dressed. I cooked up a Bacon, Egg, and cheese English Muffin and then started getting all the gear together and into the truck. At about 6 a.m. we jumped in the truck and set off on the short drive to the area we had chosen to hunt. Much to our disappointment there was already a vehicle parked in the spot we had chosen so we backed out and moved a good distance away so as not to encroach on the other hunters.
As the sun rose I was able to glass up a few does at the top of a hill approximately 600 yards away and even as hard as I tried, I couldn’t put any horns on any of them. We glassed a little while longer and decided to make a change in location. We headed for the new spot only to find it closed to hunting. After a brief discussion, we formulated a plan and set off. We drove up a not to well traveled road that put us on a ridgeline that allowed us to glass some really good terrain. We had settled in to glass for a bit and while glassing my father hollers at me telling me my phone is ringing. I scurry up to the truck and see the missed call from the friend who was also hunting with his son. I called him back and he informed me that his wife had glassed up a nice little 2x2 that hadn’t moved in 30 minutes and that if Dakota wanted he could come over and we’d work out a plan to close the distance to a manageable shot.
We managed to make our way over to his my friends glassing spot and as luck would have it the deer had bedded down. The deer was about 650 yards away bedded down amongst a bunch of Yucca plants. We decided that we could cut the distance to about 300 yards but no more. Dakota, myself, and my dad set off to the point we had picked as our shooting point hoping that the deer would not rise from his bed and depart before we had a chance to get set up. Once at the designated spot we got settled in for a the wait. Shortly after getting set I got a call from my friend letting me know that another 2 point and a doe were making their way down the ridgeline and might give us a better shot. I glassed where he said the deer were coming from and quickly picked up the Buck but he gave us only a glimpse before he disappeared behind a juniper tree from which he never emerged. As we continued the wait we decided we could move a little farther forward without spooking the bedded buck and this would give us about a 240 yard shot.
Once in our new spot I quickly got Dakotas gun into the TriClawps and got him in a good sitting position behind the rifle. For the next 2 hours we went over the scenario so many times that my son was getting quite angry with me but I needed to make sure he knew exactly what needed to be done once the buck arose from his bed. Another 1.5 hours passed with us waiting patiently for the deer to stand, during which I never left my binos for more than a few seconds in fear of missing the opportunity for a shot. At about 11:33 a.m I took my eyes out of the binos to look to my right to make sure there were no deer milling around and when I returned to the binos the deer was standing looking over his left should at us! I quicly informed Dakota that the buck was up and he needed to get on him. Within a matter of seconds he was on the buck and then told me, “ Dad, I have him, crosshairs behind the shoulder right?” I replied “yes, and when you have them on him go ahead a squeeze the trigger”. I had n sooner finished my statement when his rifle went off. I could see through the binos that the deer hunched considerably at which time I told Dakota “You hit him!” Dakota excitedly said, “I got him?” I told him he had and when I went back to the binos the deer was nowhere to be found. My phone rang shortly after the shot with my friend telling me to have my son shoot again as the buck was standing not moving. I couldn’t see the buck at all so we had no chance at a second shot. While on the phone my friend stated that the buck had bedded back down but he was certain the buck had been hit hard. We waited A few minutes then packed up our gear and started to make our way over to the last place we had seen the deer.
As we made our way over I made certain that Dakota was ready to make another shot should the buck try and bolt from the area he had bedded back down. We walked right to the spot where the buck had been standing, no deer and no blood! My phone rang once again with my friend asking if we had found the deer, to which I replied that we had not, He then had us walk to our right about 20 feet and there he was! The shot had went in just behind the rib cage on the left side, traveled at an angle across and stopped just under the skin center on his right shoulder. At this point it really hit Dakota that he had succeeded in taking his first deer and I could see he was literally shaking with excitement.
We packed the deer out then headed over to the Sportsman’s center to check the deer in as it is a requirement on Fort Huachuca to do so. The deer field dressed at 86lbs and looked to be about 2 ½ years old. We skinned the deer and placed him in the game bag ready for the trip back to Tucson.
I can say that I don’t believe there is anything in the world quite like watching you child take his or her first deer, and its this feeling that keeps me doing it. I have always stated that if there came a time that I did not get excited about taking an animal then it was time for me to hang it up. As for my son, there is no doubt that he is hooked for life.
