Youth Hunting Weekend 2009 - New Hampshire

Kevin and I went up north for Youth Hunting weekend in NH.

We arrived in Moultonborough Friday afternoon. Unloaded our stuff and some wood I brought up for the fireplace. We headed up the hill to where we wanted to take a stand.

We woke up Saturday morning to rain. Lots and lots of rain. We headed out to the rock. I over packed, as any father does, to be prepared to stay in the woods all day if Kevin wanted to. My llBean rock sack Hunting Pack felt like it had rocks in it because it was so heavy. With the rain and wind we wore poncho’s to try to keep dry. I had better gear so I was fine but Kevin ended up wet and cold after 3 or 4 hours. We headed back to the house to put our wet gear in the dryer and went to the diner to eat. It continued to rain all day so Kevin decided to call it quits for the day. We had thunderstorms and another inch of rain Saturday night.

Sunday morning we were up early. No rain, clear sky. Our plan was to start up the hill just as it gets light so we can hunt on the way to our rock. I drove to where we were going to park and realized I forgot my wallet and hunting license at the house. We went back. Arrived the second time and off we went up the hill.

It was around 45 degrees starting out. Kevin seemed to want to walk more so we overdressed. His jacket ended up strapped to my pack. Ugh …

We follow a seldom used ATV trail up the hill. It merges with another ATV trail coming from another direction. We were ½ way to our rock very close to where the 2 trails meet. Kevin was 40 feet in front of me with his gun ready. Directly in front of Kevin 35 yards or so there was a big snort and 3 deer jumped up and started to run. Kevin put up his 30-30 and fired … One deer went left, the one in the middle started left, stopped turned around and went with the other one to the right. He pushed and pulled the lever and fired a second shot and they were gone.

Kevin said he was shooting at the middle deer. He said he shot the first round at the middle deer between 2 trees. No sign of the bullet hitting the trees. I was amazed he had the presence to get off a second shot. We checked the area for hair or blood but didn’t see anything. We followed the tracks of the deer he shot at going to the right. No sign of a hit. I told Kevin it is very hard to shoot a moving target let alone a running deer. I was just happy he had the opportunity to take a shot.



Watch your step

We spent the afternoon in the woods until it was time to head home. Here are a couple pictures of "Life on the Trail". Hmm ... could be another blog post.


Youth weekend is a great father/son or father/daughter experience.