First Blacktail Buck I never shot …..

My first deer season with my Dad til this day is still in my opinion the best one we have had yet. This was a big step for me cause not only was I going on the hunt but in my mind it was something bigger. You see my Dad was  employed at the local lumber mill in southern Oregon. In this particular line of work, at this time, wasn’t the greatest pay or steadiest of jobs. Getting laid off was a regular occurrence. So hunting season was a way to save some money by filling the freezer with some food. This was the year where I could share the responsibility with my Dad and help out the family, in essence, do my part. So opening morning we grabbed our guns. Dad carrying a lever action 30-30 and my grandmother loaned me a Remington 700 series bolt action 30-30. We were actually both pumped cause this year we also got to draw doe tags as well, so we felt we couldn’t lose this season.

So at first light we head down the road and then get out and start looking for our tags that were currently running around out in the woods. Not long into it and we spotted a doe about 150 yards out. My Dad says there you go Glenn, I quickly throw my gun up take aim and squeeze the trigger. It was a clean miss by almost 2 feet, “Slow down and take your time, she wasn’t going any where.” Dad says. Frustrated cause I thought I had the sights right on her. We headed to another spot cause it was still early. As we just start to go down the the spot where Dad said there should be some deer, we see another doe. This time she locked right on to us at about 60 yards out. Luckily she tries the ever so popular if I don’t move they can’t see me. Not her lucky day, she was standing in a small meadow and we had seen her. Same thing I pull up squeeze the trigger and BANG, she runs off into the brush. Guess it was her lucky day after all. Now the arguing between me and my Dad begins, ” You need slow down and squeeze the trigger don’t jerk” he says. ” I’m not! ” I yelled as I picked up the empty casing. “Glenn you have to be she was right there in front of you looking at ya “. As we started heading home for the morning Dad pulls over at a spot and says lets make sure the gun is sighted in. So he goes first shoots the gun and it is dead accurate. Now my turn. We start at about 50 yards and it is way off. Realizing at that point Dad sighted the gun in for me and not using glasses plus his eye sight…… well isn’t exactly 20-20. So now that we have fixed the problem we head home Dad needs some rest working graveyard the night before, and the plan was to go out for an evening hunt.

So the plan was that we would head back out around 4:30 pm for an evening hunt when the deer started to move around again. By 2:00pm I broke a cardinal rule and woke up my Dad “Cmon lets go” I said. He looked at me like I was crazy when he looked at the time. He did his best to explain to me that it was still too early and we’d be wasting our time. I however wasn’t having it and in my mind they were all out there getting away. Despite what my Dad was thinking or thought he did the good old Dad thing and rolled out of bed sighed and said “OK”….yes! I had won. We take an old logging road up the to the mountains just behind the house. We then go down an old cat road no longer in use that wraps around a cut block that is about 5 years old. I remember us walking around a drainage and looking down in it. We keep going a bit then I stop. I realize there was a deer there looking at us. I didn’t notice it at first cause we looked down a small opening in the brush as quickly going by.

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