DREAM BUCK

Deer hunting is an activity I've enjoyed for decades.  And in recent years my twin 14-year-old boys, Brandon and Cody, and even my 21-year-old daughter, Ashley, have taken an interest and killed deer.  These hunts have always been about their experience as I've never carried a weapon and simply been there for expertise, advice and guidance.  I've even been an alarm clock as evidenced on the most recent outing with Cody a few weeks ago.

Teenagers are tough to roust out of bed.  Heck, the older I get the more I like the comfortable confines of a toasty-warm bed at 5 a.m. in the morning, too.  Although it's easy to dream of big deer, it's difficult to throw the backstraps on the grill from a dream buck.  So the long and short of it is you've got to be there to win.  Cody knows this but it doesn't make it any easier to wake up early and head out into the cold but that's what we did.

It was a beautiful, clear morning with little wind.  Cody had his crossbow all set-up and ready to go as it rested on shooting sticks.  We both yawned a few times sitting comfortably in chairs in our ground blind as it broke daylight.  It wasn't long and Cody started to nod off, finally resting his head on the stock of his crossbow. 

I was just about to catch a few ZZZ's myself when a nice 8-point buck appeared at about sunrise.  My heart instantly raced, even despite the fact I wasn't shooting.  I whispered to Cody to wake up and not move as there was a buck just 20 yards away.  Later he said he thought I was messing with him as I've cried wolf before just to get his goat.  I would have loved to see Cody's eyes when he popped them open to see a nice buck standing there and realize he wasn't dreaming and I wasn't joking.

The buck was quartered away and I instructed Cody on where to aim based on the angle.  My adrenaline was flowing and I tried to remain calm for Cody's sake, although he admitted later he could hear me breathing hard.  I told him to take a few deep breaths, concentrate and shoot when he was ready.       

The shot in my mind was a little low and back, but the angle should have been good.

"Did I get him?" Cody asked in between breaths. 

"You hit him, but the shot wasn't perfect," I told him.

We waited in the blind for another hour and had an encounter with a giant doe we've seen before.  All of the trail camera pictures of her have her looking directly at the blind.  She's cagey and at only 7 yards away she had us pegged and boogied before Cody could get a shot at her, too. 

Recovering Cody's buck took a lot of patience, persistence and luck, but we were able to find it.  Cody's first buck was a nice 2 1/2-year-old, 8 pointer we later learned we had on our trail camera a few times as well. 

It may not have been the buck Cody was dreaming about but it was a nice one and he was happy.  I was, too.  Spending time in the great outdoors with my kids, whether I'm watching them sleep or not, is enjoyable.  We'll remember that hunt forever and Cody now knows that ol' Dad doesn't cry wolf ALL the time.