This year, I decided along with my 12-year-old son that we would take to the field with a rifle for his first deer hunt. Over his 12 short years, he has accompanied me on many hunting and fishing trips. While he had gotten pretty darn good at soaking a line, he had never fired a shot in the field. Some decisions needed to be made about gear, location, and opportunity. I wanted him to see deer and have a realistic opportunity but not hit a spot where it was all but done on arrival.
We frequent a 7,500 acre three wire, low-fenced property on the Trinity River south of Dallas. Doc MacFarland offered a father/son doe management hunt to us while we were out on annual hog hunt last April, and I was sold. We would be back out with the boys in tow in November of 2017. It would be three days and two nights at the lodge, with a morning and evening stand, trying for that one window of opportunity, God willing. My son needed to get his hunter safety card, and at first, I looked at this as a great inconvenience, thinking I had taught, or would teach, all he needed to know. Well, they listen better to others. I cannot emphasize how positive this class was to his overall knowledge and attitude in the field. This class truly helped make him into a young sportsman and reaffirmed the values I had been instilling. Next, we picked up a Remington 700 in .243 youth model and a $7 Texas youth license and we were on our way to Texas. Landowner tags were included in the hunt.
The first afternoon, we jumped in the rental truck at the Dallas airport and headed the 112 miles south to the promise of solitude, green fields, and three days of chasing game in tall oak and river bottom timber. On arrival at The Big Woods, we double checked our zeroes and headed out to the stand. There were five hunters on the entire acreage, including my friend, RJ, and his son.
That evening, my son got to see a few deer at great range, armadillos, and the usual creatures of the field. We were already having the time of our lives together. It is a rare day when you get to sit in a box with your loved ones and just talk, nothing else. Just before shooting light ran out, a 3 1/2-year-old doe came moving in and right in range. Well, Dad blew this one. I didn’t teach him how to quietly work the bolt in the blind, and Mom made me promise it would be unloaded until the time came. He quickly found out why they are called whitetail deer. We had to settle for an excellent meal at the lodge.
The next morning netted a few more large bucks seen, a bobcat, and some very shabby and large hogs running across large barley lanes from shelter to shelter. Some does were out there but just out of range. My was outdoing me in the spotting department, and I was 100% thrilled with that. I didn’t want him to push a shot he was not comfortable with, and after hunter safety, he did not need to be convinced to wait until he was comfortable. Our evening stand would change the entire weekend. A set of does came in from the front, and then another set came in from behind with a more mature and very smooth-pelted doe. We switched up windows. My son took his time and was patient. He sent one downrange with a firm hit in the right shoulder, resulting in a clean hunt. It was all hugs and smile from there with me beaming almost as big as him on seeing him run down to his doe and talk about how beautiful she was and how happy he was.
We rounded out the weekend with him watching Dad sail one over a doe’s back at about 120 yards. I should have listened to my own advise on a patient shot. As can be expected, he has come under the spell of all things hunting and outside. I cannot complain. I believe I will have a hunting partner for life, and when I get a little slow, he will be taking me to the field.
Texas Deer Hunting
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