[youth hunt]

Now, to a good story about the youth hunt. My friend's daughter has been anxious to shoot a deer for a couple years now, but she was not old enough to be anything but an observer until this youth hunt came up. She is fifteen and an active outdoors woman enjoying fishing, small game hunting, camping, and lots of shooting.

Yesterday morning she sat through the rain and cold, windy weather all for naught. She was chilly and frustrated, still full of hope. Yesterday afternoon, I invited her up to hunt in my area because her dad had to work. She jumped at the opportunity and we enjoyed much nicer weather and a lot more action.

We were set up on a field edge of cut corn that I knew deer were already feeding on before dark. She had a forked branch stuck in the ground for a shooting stick and was all ready for a shot. She was really wanting to shoot a buck because her older brother has gotten one his first two years of deer hunting. But, no way she was going to pass up a doe if it came right down to shooting or not shooting.

By 4:00 we already had several does, fawns and a couple small bucks in the field and she was a bag of nerves because they were close to 300 yards away from us and feeding parallel to us. I told her we had lots of time and there were more deer in the area. Sure enough, a nice, young spike came out at a little under 100 yards offering a beutiful shot.

Unfortunately, buck fever set in pretty bad, and she just couldn't seem to calm down enough to hold the scope steady. I got her to breathe deep through her nose a few times and she was able to get her breathing under control. By now the buck is quite a bit further away and she doesn't know if she can still hit it. I reminded her that we were not trying to hit it, she was going to drop it. I ranged it at 160 yards and told her all was well with her shot and to just hold right where she wanted to hit. A couple minutes later he turned broadside, and I told her to take the shot when she was rock steady. It wasn't more than a couple seconds and the rifle went off and the buck dropped where he stood.

I had to keep her there for a few minutes while I explained to her about making sure the deer was down for good, and then, that the gun was empty and the bolt open. That is just one of my personal rules. I like to know without a doubt whether a gun is safe or not.

We got up to the deer and she was just a jumping up and down. It sure did me good to see a hunter showing the sheer joy of getting a buck. I did most of the field dressing, but she did get bloodied up helping. Then the 1/2 mile drag started. We made it, and I sure was glad she was there to help.

This was done in 4F in the town of Edmeston. She used an old .270 Remington with a Simmonds Pro hunter scope(I think that is what it said. ) Perfect high shoulder shot just like she saw in the hunting shows and the deer never took a step. She couldn't thank me enough for getting her a shot, but I feel I was the real winner here because in this day and age you just don't get many opportunities to see such pure joy in anyones face like I got to see. Thanks for reading, and i apologize for not having a picture to post.

[Where are the deer in 4f]

The majority of my bow hunting is done in the Edmeston area. Plenty of deer there. Just waiting for the bigger bucks to start checking out my doe areas. Fawns are still with their mamas, so it is mostly last years bucks, and a few 2 and a halfs right now.

[Finally Registered]

I have been reading for a long time and finally decided to sign on. I am from Oneonta and have been an outdoorsman as long as I can remember. I grew up in a hunting family, and consider myself very lucky that I had a father that passed on his love of hunting and the outdoors in general.

I mostly just hunt for deer now because of work and family commitments. I absolutely love bowhunting and I do still gun hunt because of the the comraderie with friends. I also enjoy camping and do quite a bit of walleye fishing in the spring and early summer.

I am not on here to argue or be a know-it-all. I have quite a bit of knowledge and like all others, i have an opinion. I will not post just to contradict someone, but sometimes i will write my personal opinion in a respectful way.