Big_Holla
11-23-2012, 04:01 PM
As many of you know my family and I live in Michigan and my love for Ohio brought me to this site many years ago. So I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to share a story about a recent hunt up here that I was fortunate to enjoy with my 13 year old daughter Jenna.
Jenna absolutely loves deer hunting and up until this point had only used a crossbow while doing it. She is into travel fastpitch softball and it is literally a year round thing with training and all. So, this year time hunting was an absolute "0" up until last Saturday the 17th. of November. Since gun season cam in on the 15th. we had a couple of options. She could continue to use the crossbow or try something new. We decided to have her try the muzzleloader since we could change the loads some to help ease her nervousness of shooting a 'big gun'. After practicing a bit and lightening the load a little we found that she was pretty accurate with the gun, a Remington 700 .50 cal.
Saturday morning we got up at 3:00 am to get loaded up to make the almost 2 hour drive up to a farm we often hunt up in the 'thumb' of Michigan. We arrived a bit before 6 am and hurried to get out into the elevated shack blind we were going to hunt out of before daylight. Soon as the sun started coming up we could clearly see the heavy frost on the hay field.
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/34999_366098646817846_1668553383_n.jpg
Several flocks of geese flew over making quite the morning, however we only saw one small deer that was spooky as could be!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/542685_366098693484508_878538171_n.jpg
We ended up staying all day in the blind and soon we were into our lunch and snacks. One thing about our family, we know how to pack the necessities. Sandwiches, candy bars, drinks.........oh and Jenna and my secret weapon......pistachio's!! Every deer she has shot was done so after we had eaten pistachio's! So here goes.....
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/jenna-and-secret-weapon.jpg
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/loving-it.jpg
Sometimes I think it's about the fun of seeing if we can toss the shells out the window or not. What ever it is, it seems to work for the deer!! About an hour before dark we soon had 3 yearlings out milling around. Soon I spotted another deer coming and with the binoculars I could clearly see it was a nice spiked buck. Jenna got pretty excited and soon was trying to settle herself down as she had never shot an antlered buck before. After a while the buck made it's way out in front of her and at about 60 yards Jenna settled the crosshairs on the buck and squeezed the trigger. I could tell instantly that her shot hit the mark and the buck was crashing back into the woods, soon the crashing stopped completely!!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/jenna-w-first-antlered-buck.jpg
So, with that you might think the story ends there. Well, as I was trying to pack things back into the backpack Jenna says to me 'dad there's another deer coming out'. As many know, that's the oldest trick in the book so dad didn't quite believe her at the moment. Soon as she peered out with the binoculars she said it was a big doe! Well now she had me if she was just kidding.....but she wasn't! As I looked out sure enough, there she was. After a quick swap of the seats dad was in the shooting position and hoping to get a shot at this doe. I don't know if it was the pressure of Jenna making a great shot on her deer, the idea of doing a double or what but I can't think of a time where I was that nervous making a shot with a gun on a deer, a doe at that! After settling down and once the doe decided to stop broadside I squeezed off my shot and it hit it's mark!! Two deer down, our first double together!!! Jenna and I hugged and smiled and cheered each other on!! What an incredible experience, so much more than I ever dreamed it could feel like!!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/chuck-and-jenna-deer-2012.jpg
Jenna absolutely loves deer hunting and up until this point had only used a crossbow while doing it. She is into travel fastpitch softball and it is literally a year round thing with training and all. So, this year time hunting was an absolute "0" up until last Saturday the 17th. of November. Since gun season cam in on the 15th. we had a couple of options. She could continue to use the crossbow or try something new. We decided to have her try the muzzleloader since we could change the loads some to help ease her nervousness of shooting a 'big gun'. After practicing a bit and lightening the load a little we found that she was pretty accurate with the gun, a Remington 700 .50 cal.
Saturday morning we got up at 3:00 am to get loaded up to make the almost 2 hour drive up to a farm we often hunt up in the 'thumb' of Michigan. We arrived a bit before 6 am and hurried to get out into the elevated shack blind we were going to hunt out of before daylight. Soon as the sun started coming up we could clearly see the heavy frost on the hay field.
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/34999_366098646817846_1668553383_n.jpg
Several flocks of geese flew over making quite the morning, however we only saw one small deer that was spooky as could be!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/542685_366098693484508_878538171_n.jpg
We ended up staying all day in the blind and soon we were into our lunch and snacks. One thing about our family, we know how to pack the necessities. Sandwiches, candy bars, drinks.........oh and Jenna and my secret weapon......pistachio's!! Every deer she has shot was done so after we had eaten pistachio's! So here goes.....
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/jenna-and-secret-weapon.jpg
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/loving-it.jpg
Sometimes I think it's about the fun of seeing if we can toss the shells out the window or not. What ever it is, it seems to work for the deer!! About an hour before dark we soon had 3 yearlings out milling around. Soon I spotted another deer coming and with the binoculars I could clearly see it was a nice spiked buck. Jenna got pretty excited and soon was trying to settle herself down as she had never shot an antlered buck before. After a while the buck made it's way out in front of her and at about 60 yards Jenna settled the crosshairs on the buck and squeezed the trigger. I could tell instantly that her shot hit the mark and the buck was crashing back into the woods, soon the crashing stopped completely!!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/jenna-w-first-antlered-buck.jpg
So, with that you might think the story ends there. Well, as I was trying to pack things back into the backpack Jenna says to me 'dad there's another deer coming out'. As many know, that's the oldest trick in the book so dad didn't quite believe her at the moment. Soon as she peered out with the binoculars she said it was a big doe! Well now she had me if she was just kidding.....but she wasn't! As I looked out sure enough, there she was. After a quick swap of the seats dad was in the shooting position and hoping to get a shot at this doe. I don't know if it was the pressure of Jenna making a great shot on her deer, the idea of doing a double or what but I can't think of a time where I was that nervous making a shot with a gun on a deer, a doe at that! After settling down and once the doe decided to stop broadside I squeezed off my shot and it hit it's mark!! Two deer down, our first double together!!! Jenna and I hugged and smiled and cheered each other on!! What an incredible experience, so much more than I ever dreamed it could feel like!!
http://www.bowhuntingohio.com/forum/gallery/files/3/2/6/chuck-and-jenna-deer-2012.jpg