A few months back my wife, Karen, said that our son, Christian, was interested in hunting after he'd read the Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's novel "The Yearling" and she signed him up for a hunter safety course. The wonderfully rare trait that both my boys have is that when they have an interest they see it through to completion and mastery. Hunting was no exception. I watched Christian take on hunting with diligence and maturity beyond his age of twelve, almost thirteen. When I heard about a youth hunt in Tallahassee, I was interested in going with Christian but had no idea what to expect. I actually thought it would be a "redneck" type thing and maybe a little creepy. But as us parents know, we'll do anything for our kids.
The day of the hunt I was exhausted since I had a class the previous day so when I was warned to dress warmly, I overlooked it. I went through my clothes looking for fashionable hunting clothing: greens and camos. Christian, on the other hand, was careful as a good scout to make sure he was prepared for what he needed for a winter camp-out. I grabbed a thin olive jacket along with short sleeve shirts and we packed the car with tent and camping equipment and headed for Tallahassee.When we arrived at the hunting camp site, we learned from the hunt master that Christian needed to qualify. We followed the four wheel drives to a field with targets set up in the distance. I was beginning to feel a bit out of place having the impression that everyone was experienced hunter types. The hunt master had each youth come up to a wooden shooting stand and gave them three initial opportunities to hit a target. He used a scope to measure the success of each boy and critiqued them guiding them with "a little more to the right" or "six inches lower" until they shot to his approval. One boy missed the target entirely and was told to wait to last for more training. When Christian came up the hunt master asked him if he had shot a high powered rifle before and he honestly said "no". The hunt master reached for a 308 rifle with scope and gave Christian some quick instructions and told him to shoot the gun. I watched from behind as Christian confidently held the large heavy weapon and took a shot with a startling bang. The hunt master said to aim 4 inches lower and gave him another try. Upon making his second try the hunt master exclaimed "great! Do that tomorrow and you'll be fine." They brought his paper target to him and we saw that he made a bullseye.
Afterward we went back to the campsite and set up our tent it was already getting very cold and I was shivering. They made hot dogs and hamburgers as we ate around a fire and talked to other youth and their dads, I could tell that we were not the only novice hunters which made me feel better. We went to our tents to go to bed while the temp was around 30 degrees and dropping. I was starting to wonder how sleeping was going to feel. Although I fell asleep pretty quickly since we had sleeping bags were rated for temps in the 200's, I woke up at about 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep as my feet were frozen. Five AM came quickly as my phone alarm went off after about 4 hours of sleep. Christian was awake too at that point and he said he hardly slept either. We went to our car and turned the heat on to thaw our bodies.
The first hunt started at 6 am and the land owner volunteered to take us to our hunting area and we accepted. He drove us through rough terrain and stopped in the middle of the forest. He then directed us to go about 30 yards down into the thicket and a ways to the left. We thanked him and began our trek into the woods. It took us about 20 minutes to find the site since it was still dark and the blind that we were to remain in during the hunt was, of course, camouflaged and nearly invisible. The early morning hunt consisted of Christian and I freezing our butts off wondering if we would see anything in the camo tent that we sat inside. We loaded the 308 rifle and left the safety on and watched for a few hours. Then Christian whispered that he saw two deer running through a thicket nearby yet I saw nothing. We waited in the extreme cold and Christian finally said that he wanted to get out in the sun to stretch which I was fine with. We got out and walked around. The only sound was of wood ducks quaking and flapping in a nearby pond. As we walked I suddenly saw a yearling appear ahead on the trail and turned to draw Christian's attention to it.we hurriedly ran into the camo tent and watched as we both new it was just a yearling but I told Christian that the mother couldn't be far. All of a sudden the doe jumped out of the woods and into the clearing facing us as we watched. Christian then moved his safety to the fire position but too late as the doe jumped quickly back into the thicket. We agreed to wait and see if they come back since we didn't want to disrupt our cover. I day dreamed about the experience as we waited thinking that the young deer would probably have died without the protection of the mother. I was quietly glad that they ran to safety. That was a wise and protective mother! At 10:30 am we waited for the truck to come and get us as we pack up our chairs and unloaded the gun putting it back in the bag.
The remaining morning consisted of sitting around the fire until lunch which was make-your-own sandwiches. We had some opportunities to chat with the other youth and their parents as well as the hunt volunteers. It was an enlightening experience for me because these were not what I expected everyone seemed pretty normal with careers such as lawyers and doctors, not what I had preconceived at all.
The afternoon hunt began at about 3 pm as trucks took the hunters and chaperons to their hunting sites. The driver told us to be sure and pee prior to going into the hunting area so as not to disturb the site. We arrived at the buck blind in a beautiful clearing surrounded by trees as the sun created an ambient shade and the warmth made the temperature in the upper 50s. We sat in near silence for about two hours interrupted once with Christian exclaiming quietly that he saw a deer in the distance clearing. We agreed that it was too far and should wait and see if it comes closer. We waited until about 5 pm with nothing except squirrels playing and armadillos rooting. Then it happened, a lone doe walked into the clearing slowly about 60 yards away or so. I saw it first and told Christian to take off his safety. He looked at the deer in his site and waited and then fired. I watched the doe as it was hit and it immediately fell to the ground. At that moment I was so proud of Christian and we ran to the deer to inspect it. He hit the deer perfectly behind the shoulder and near the spine the deer died instantly. On the other side there was a five inch circle where the bullet exited. I called the hunt master and he arrived shortly to inspect the deer. He reached into the bullet wound with his finger and took some blood and painted it on Christians cheeks excited with his first kill. He then told Christian that he had to drag the deer to the truck.
We arrived back at camp and everyone there congratulated Christian as we took the deer to a skinning hook at the back of the camp. We watched as they hung the deer up and taught Christian to skin and butcher the deer allowing him to participate with his sharp Gerber knife that he got for Christmas. We were both filled with adrenaline as the huntmaster exclaimed that this teenage deer was going to be very tender. We left shortly thereafter since we didn't want to spend another frigid night in the tent. As we drove 3 hours back to Ocala we called our family to tell them of Christian's success. We brought back the meat and the fur since Christian wanted to tan the hide.
The next day, Christian and I butchered the meat and that night roasted the fore legs. They tasted amazing. We both learned a lot from this hunting trip and had a great bonding experience that I'll remember forever.
