My son's New Mexico youth hunt
Hiker
12/6/08 4:07pm
My 10 year old son, Luke and I had a great time together in NM. Luke had been looking forward to his first big game hunt for many months. We hunted hard and hiked many miles. He made his Dad proud of his "stick to it ness" and didn't give up. We saw a lot of deer but couldn't find a legal buck to save our lives. We moved camp 26.2 miles and found this buck. We prayed and God guided us right to him. He was the herd buck and had a bunch of does. Luke made a great shot with his sister's 30-06. The handloads TGWH did for us did him in with one shot.
12,009
Luke tracking and finding his buck.
Mark
I big time Congrats to you and your boy and thanks for keeping the younger generation alive!!
Heads or Tails, you should do it. It's a lot easier for a youth to draw in NM than an adult. I usually apply for NM every year and this is the first tag we have ever drawn in our family.
First of all congats to you and your boy. Your daughters too for that matter. I was just at your WY speedgoat post. Your family definitely has the hunting bug. I think it is great. Not much of anything better out there to create good family bonds than outdoor activities. It's awesome that you've experienced sucessful hunting with your kids. I have four of my own. None are old enough to hunt yet. That limits the amount of time I get to spend afield. I can't wait until some of them are tag holders too! It will justify more time hunting.
Way to set an example!
Thanks for your kind words. I started taking the kids along with me when they were younger, now most of them can carry their own rifles. I love to spend time with them and hunting is a true passion of mine and it's appears to be in their blood too. I look forward to many more years with them on the mountain. But to be honest, my favorite time with them is at breakfast, having family devotions and studying the bible together. I live for that! 10sign: 10sign: 10sign:
Day 1 - We woke up the first day to rain. It rained for about 3 1\2 hours. So we ate breakfast in the tent. When it stopped raining. We got all our stuff on and walked down a river bed about a mile long. Then we started up a mountain. When a very thick fog set in, we were about half way up. When we got to the top, we sat on some rocks and waited for the fog to clear. While we waited, my dad showed me how to use a GPS. When the fog finally cleared, we went back to camp to eat lunch. When we got back, we cleaned out the tent because it had rained and everything was soaked. While we did that, my dad saw a herd of deer. So we went and began to stalk them from camp. They were about 1,000 yards away. So we went down the river bed and a doe saw us. But she didn’t move and kept bedded. When we got about 225 yards away from them, my dad looked to see if there was a legal buck. It looked like a forky but it was a spike. We watched them for a long time. Then it began to get dark so we went back to camp and ate dinner. We also played cards until to bed.
Day 2 – Today we woke up and ate breakfast. We then prayed we would find a buck I could shoot. Next, we went up the river bed and reached a small mountain. We began to hike up, hoping to get the deer from behind. But the deer moved so we went back to camp and ate lunch and then we went hiking where the deer where and got about 100 yards away. When they saw us and ran, there was a spike and fourteen does. We watched the deer for a little while and glassed for other bucks. But we didn’t see anything… So we went back to camp and ate dinner.
Day 3 – Today we took down camp and went shopping for a few supplies and went to check out a mountain. So we went up it and glassed for a long time. We went down a little ways and my dad said, “Let’s glass one more time.” So when my dad looked, he found a whole herd of deer and my dad said, “Let’s get ready and go hike and stalk them.” Well right now, the wind was blowing right at the deer so we went around the mountain and got close to the deer. But a doe was looking right at us so we went around another tree to stay hidden. And we were about 50 yards from the deer so my dad said, “Get your gun ready.” So I put my gun on the shooting sticks and a doe ran straight down the mountain and I thought the deer were gone but my dad said “Get ready... here comes the buck.” But I didn’t tell him when I was going to shoot. When the buck came, I thought it was a forky but my dad said it was a 4x4 or maybe a 5x5. My dad was looking through his binos when I shot. I thought I had missed. When we got over to where I had shot, a doe ran from the group and it got lost. So my dad said, “Luke, go look for some blood.” While he went down the mountain, he found my deer. But, I couldn’t find any blood so my dad said, “Luke, go follow the tracks.” So I followed the tracks and found a buck laying down and looking right at me. It scared me at first! I thought: “Wow! A sleeping buck!!” Then I saw a hole in his side and I said, “That’s my buck!” So we walked over to see it and we kneeled down and prayed, Thanking God for my buck. Then we pulled out the buck from the shade and took some pictures. Then we gutted it and dragged it for about a mile, up hill! My dad drug it all the way out while I carried the camelbak and more. When we got to the truck, I was ready to take a nap. I learned during this trip that being quiet is important, stalking is key, walking quietly is vital, and to listen makes all the difference, ohh and no sneezing. :) Thanks Dad for taking me!
Jessica
tracker
congrats on a great buck, and your story should be an easy A+ :thumb it does sound like you have a great family of hunters and your fitting right in. i cant wait to share the same times with my kids, stories like these are what hunting is all about. good times spent with good people= memories! congrats again and thanks for posting 10sign:
Tracker "YOU THE MAN"!
Hiker thats awesome man, I have a 5yr old Itake him white tail huntin, but I can't wait till he starts going little further west with me chasing the Mulies.
Thanks for the Awesome story Luke
I was telling someone the other day about what a blessing it was to have your atv to haul my buck out from the bottom of that mountain. Mike and I were planning on quartering it up but Praise God, as we climbed up out of there, it (atv) came to our mind. Those things will flat out spoil you. Thanks again for hauling my buck out. =D>