My Hunter Gets His First Deer (and then another)
One of the things I love about what I do is when I get to take people to harvest their first whitetail deer or their first ducks. It's a lot of fun because I know that I am helping to build a new generation of 2nd Amendment advocates and hunters. This weekend I had a hunter who had never shot a deer before and I was set to take him out for one. This was a "meat hunt" and, per the property owners, only doe and spike bucks were in play (but hey, he wasn't charging us). My hunter texted me that his flight had been delayed due to a fire at DFW airport and the estimate time of arrival kept getting pushed back until he decided he would just drive himself to the hunt. We woke up in the cabin at about 5:45 and he had not arrived yet. We figured that he was too tired to drive and were about to head to the field when he pulled into the ranch. We outfitted him as best we could in cold weather gear, armed him with my Seekins Precision PH2 in 300 Winchester Magnum (he wanted to leave no doubt on his first deer), and my favorite bait.
I dropped the bait and advised him that it might take a bit and, no sooner had we settled into the blind, but a spike buck walked up to the bait. I had him get on target as I watched for the clock to hit legal shooting time. The minute that time changed I whispered "send it", the rifle barked, and the deer dropped like a stone. 300 Win Mag is overkill for Texas whitetail, but you certainly don't have to do much tracking. We tagged the dder, loaded him up, and took him to the "predator pile" (where carcasses are chained up for coyotes and hogs so we can hunt them). I gave my hunter a lesson in how to gut a deer and he managed to avoid nicking anything that smells bad so, unlike a lot of people, he managed not to vomit his first time. After that, he got a lesson in skinning and quartering before he was finally allowed to go inside an get some sleep. It was a nice little spike - a great first deer by any standard. I let him go to bed after the work had been done and make sure his deer was on ice in the cooler even though it was plenty cold.
We went out again later that evening and heard the report of a rifle fired by another one of our hunters and the guide with him. He shot a nice little spike and, when shooting time ended, we went back to help him skin and quarter his kill. It was about beer thirty after that job was done. I enjoyed one but my hunter doesn't drink so he had some water. Chili, comprised partially of deer from last season, was supper. We went to bed and woke up the next morning for one more chance.
The deer were less cooperative the following day. Two of their friends were taking dirt naps and, after an hour in the blind, we figured they had gotten wise. About 45 minutes into legal shooting time a small doe came up and acted like she had busted us...until a larger doe followed. My hunter was armed with an AR-15 chambered in 6.5 Grendel this time. This is a custom build that I did myself. It's extremely light and intended for predator hunting but the 6.5 Grendel is an awesome Texas whitetail round and would probably be fine for anything the size of a mule deer or smaller. As the larger doe kept thinking about whether she wanted to look at us or give us a broadside shot, my hunter glassed her with the outstanding Tract Optics Toric 3-15x hunt series scope attached to my 6.5. She turned broadside and I said "smoke her". The rifle barked and, once again, a deer dropped stone dead. It's nice having accurate rifles. We tagged, gutted, and processed the doe and thus ended a great weekend of hunting. Two days, two deer - and he will be hunting with me again for duck season.
Pictures below. It's a shame that Antifa bothers my friends and that, once again, I have to censor them.
I dropped the bait and advised him that it might take a bit and, no sooner had we settled into the blind, but a spike buck walked up to the bait. I had him get on target as I watched for the clock to hit legal shooting time. The minute that time changed I whispered "send it", the rifle barked, and the deer dropped like a stone. 300 Win Mag is overkill for Texas whitetail, but you certainly don't have to do much tracking. We tagged the dder, loaded him up, and took him to the "predator pile" (where carcasses are chained up for coyotes and hogs so we can hunt them). I gave my hunter a lesson in how to gut a deer and he managed to avoid nicking anything that smells bad so, unlike a lot of people, he managed not to vomit his first time. After that, he got a lesson in skinning and quartering before he was finally allowed to go inside an get some sleep. It was a nice little spike - a great first deer by any standard. I let him go to bed after the work had been done and make sure his deer was on ice in the cooler even though it was plenty cold.
We went out again later that evening and heard the report of a rifle fired by another one of our hunters and the guide with him. He shot a nice little spike and, when shooting time ended, we went back to help him skin and quarter his kill. It was about beer thirty after that job was done. I enjoyed one but my hunter doesn't drink so he had some water. Chili, comprised partially of deer from last season, was supper. We went to bed and woke up the next morning for one more chance.
The deer were less cooperative the following day. Two of their friends were taking dirt naps and, after an hour in the blind, we figured they had gotten wise. About 45 minutes into legal shooting time a small doe came up and acted like she had busted us...until a larger doe followed. My hunter was armed with an AR-15 chambered in 6.5 Grendel this time. This is a custom build that I did myself. It's extremely light and intended for predator hunting but the 6.5 Grendel is an awesome Texas whitetail round and would probably be fine for anything the size of a mule deer or smaller. As the larger doe kept thinking about whether she wanted to look at us or give us a broadside shot, my hunter glassed her with the outstanding Tract Optics Toric 3-15x hunt series scope attached to my 6.5. She turned broadside and I said "smoke her". The rifle barked and, once again, a deer dropped stone dead. It's nice having accurate rifles. We tagged, gutted, and processed the doe and thus ended a great weekend of hunting. Two days, two deer - and he will be hunting with me again for duck season.
Pictures below. It's a shame that Antifa bothers my friends and that, once again, I have to censor them.
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