We had a great time with all who attended. Six youth hunters attended, we started with four and a fifth to arrive after a football game on Saturday morning. Our sixth hunter was a surprise, Travis, Brownsburg archer's son. Travis decided mid-day Saturday to give the 20 gauge Remington youth model a try, one shot and he was hooked!
Here is a picture of the youth, back row, Adam, Cameron, Craig, Chris (future Marine) Front row Travis and Luke (the "provider")
Bean and his son Luke arrived early Friday afternoon and Luke of course wanted to try a little squirrel hunting.........
Then he and dad was off to fish, story is dad caught the most but Luke caught the biggest. A three pound largemouth bass.
Saturday Morning four youth are up and ready to go, biscuits and gravy down away they go. By nine thirty we have one deer down (Cameron) and one clean miss (Craig). The shooting houses we built a few years back really helped as it rained all of Saturday morning.
Lunch is served, and the youth are ready to roll again. Luke and dad are back at deer hunting, the rain has stopped and they are in an oak grove, no deer but lots of squirrels and a flock of Tom turkeys. The rest of the youth are shooting guns and our scheduled fifth hunter shows up. Travis has now shot the 20 gauge and is deciding if the recoil is too much. As we prepare to send the youth out for the evening Travis decides he will try deer hunting. The evening hunt produced 2 more deer.
Our hunter who had a football game in the morning came back with a nice doe.
Luke and dad decided to try the "Donnie Baker blind" on my encouragement. This is a pop up blind that sets on top of a boat trailer. On Friday night I had seen several deer feeding in a field below it. Around six pm I sneak out to a ridge about five hundred yards away and watch the field with binoculars. It isn't long until I see a nice 8 point buck feeding in front of the blind. I text Bean and say "nice buck in front of you”, Bean is surprised I'm watching. Over the next 90 minutes several deer are walking around them and then comes the text...” SHOWTIME”! A doe is directly in front of the blind at 70 yards and needs to move closer for Luke to be comfortable. Bean asks how much time left and I say ten minutes, if on que the doe moves closer and the shot is taken. We leave the area and return to the house for additional light (coleman lantern). Less than 50 yards from the shot we find the doe with a perfect shoulder/heart shot. Here is Luke and his doe, the largest deer taken.
Sunday we had the remaining three hunters hunt the morning with no shots offered. This is Chris's last hunt as a youth with us as he is soon to be 18 and we hear off to enlist in the Marines. We lost one of our youth hunters and gain another in Travis.
Cedar Branch Farms enjoys both our youth hunts (turkey and deer) it is great to experience the youth as they begin their hunting journey. I've got to relate a comment told to me by Bean.
Bean had given Luke a choice he could hunt near home for a buck or a doe, or he could go to the youth hunt on Cedar Branch where it is antlerless only, Luke chose Cedar Branch Farms.
With youth it isn't about buck or doe it is a chance to hunt with family and friends. We hope at Cedar Branch Farms all our guests become like family, we have the friend’s part down pat.
A special thanks goes out to Brownsburg archer, Tom comes down each hunt just to help out. We appreciate the volunteer time and I think we created a new hunter this weekend. I see some youth gun in Santa's bag already!
No comments:
Post a Comment