Youth Hunting Weekend - Vermont

I had a business trip to Indiana so I missed youth weekend in NH. 

Kevin took his hunter safety course so we went to Vermont for Youth weekend.  I pulled him from school on Friday and headed to Mike’s house.  We arrived mid afternoon and drove the copper mine road, Norford Lake Road, and a few others.  We had some target practice with the 9mm.

The plan for hunting was to be up early the next morning, eat breakfast, and get out to our spot.  Mike volunteered to be the beagle to see if he could push the deer down by the swamp toward our spot.  Kevin’s request was to use Mike’s lever action, 30-30 with the iron sites.

Saturday morning we were up by 4:15AM.  Had breakfast, got ready and headed out to our spot.  Kevin and I sat and about 30 minutes after it got light Mike was on the radio and started  his push.  20 minutes after that Mike announced … One coming, get ready …

Another 15 minutes went by when Kevin spotted a deer in the thick stuff moving right to left.  I had a different angle and couldn’t see it.  Gun up, safety off, he was ready.  Then I saw the deer 70 yards out walking along the beaver pond.  It disappeared from my view again … Kevin still saw it and took a shot … 3 more deer appeared following the first … two more shots.  When it was over, no blood, no hair, a miss by Kevin.   He was pretty upset.

Later that morning we went to Wayne’s house.  We wanted to go to the range to sight in our guns.  Wayne showed Kevin his gun room.  Kevin asked Wayne if he had a Colt Python.  He had 3 Pythons and lots of others to look at.  Wayne also showed him a big box of antlers in his garage from previous years.  We also saw the bear skull of the bear he took several weeks back.

At the range Kevin shot Mike’s old 30-30 as we instructed and it shot 8 inches high at 25 yards.  It turns out MIKE AND BRIAN WERE TO BLAME.  The 30-30 has a flip up back site.  The adjusters of the rear site moves the middle post up and down for elevation.  The outside posts never move.  Mike and I told Kevin to line up the front site with the top posts of the rear site.  Typically what you do.  This turned out to be wrong.  You are supposed to line up the front site with the adjustable middle post of the rear site.  When he used the middle post he was dead on.  Kevin shot at those deer like Mike and I told him to so he was probably10 inches above his target.  NUTS … We should have taken some practice shots before heading for the woods.

While we were there I shot my .308.  I had a tight grouping and felt good about things until Kevin took MY GUN and shot a tighter group with a bulls eye.  My "Hunting Brothers", Wayne and Mike, proceeded to MOCK me.  I told Kevin it was NEVER appropriate to shoot better than your old man in hunting camp. It reminded me of an instance earlier this year with Matt and Mr. Pete.  These young kids now days ... Will Mr. Pete ever live that down?  Will I ever live this down?  Wayne and Mike said Kevin shoots really well for 14. 

In the afternoon we headed up Picknell to the benches and the apple trees.  It was a steep climb on the side we went up.  As we approached to top, Mike gave Kevin instructions on where to go so he went on ahead of us.  He used the radio to tell us when he arrived at the benches.  The acorn crop was bad this year so the critters seem to be all over the apples and beechnuts.  We were surprised to see the apples were all gone.  If we had known that we would have gone to a different area lower down.  We must have tired Mike out because he fell asleep.  I don't mind telling you I was tired also.  I carried the 30 pound pack with the water, clothes, gloves, and extra equipment.  If Mike was the beagle, I was the pack mule.

We headed down Cream Street to Stephen's stump for our evening stand.

Mike did the same push Sunday morning … he pushed 2 deer towards us … I did the blat to stop the deer at 25 yards … Kevin shot … deer ran … he shot 2 more times with the deer running through the pines.  Missed.  He was very upset with himself but Mike and I tried to lift his spirits…we told him stories of Steve which made him feel better.  It happened so quick I think he pointed but didn’t aim.

At that point I had Kevin switch to my .308 with a scope. I need to get him comfortable with a scope for next year.    Mid morning we went up Jurassic for a few hours.  I did a loop up top to try to push something toward him.  We went to the top of Sargent.  We saw another deer but too far for a shot with open sights.

We headed back to figure out our evening stand.  We took our evening stand in the Valley of the Balls.  Didn’t see anything and came out when it was to dark to shoot. 

Kevin saw 7 deer in 2 days … not bad for a 14 year old.  He loved hunting in Vermont and wanted to come back the following weekend for opening rifle.  

Kevin had a great time hunting, spending time with Mike and Wayne, and I enjoyed my father son time with Kevin. 

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