Well I had been waiting all year for a really special hunt in North Carolina with our good friends Matt Bullins and Jason Bowers who are on Dream Season Working Man. During spring turkey season Matt had invited my dad and my son Jacob to come and do some whitetail hunting on his family farm in NC. I look forward to these opportunities to spend time with my dad as we live in different states and don’t get to see each other often Also this was to be Jacob’s first deer hunt ever so to say I was excited would be a huge understatement.
After putting in the time on the practice range I felt comfortable that Jacob who is 9 would be able to handle his TC safely and make a good lethal shot so fast forward several months from April to December. My dad, Jacob, and I were on our way down to NC for our family deer hunt. Matt said the deer had been moving well and that he had filmed a friend’s girlfriend harvest her first deer ever with her TC muzzleloader a nice 8pt buck. He also said that he had a couple of spots picked out for us that he thought would be very productive. Jacob and I were headed to a shooting house on the edge of a food plot and my dad would be hunting a funnel along a hardwood ridge that the deer had been frequenting.
When we arrived in deer camp we went out to dinner and shared hunting stories and jokes (that were age appropriate and mostly at my dads expense). Then the next day we were in the blind and set up by 2:30PM. Right away Jacob and I had some big gobblers come into the field. He had fun watching them through his Nikon binoculars. I was just hoping that they stick around till spring and that Matt invites us back for turkey season. After that we had several hours with no movement of any kind. I would be lying if I said I was not getting a little discouraged as I was hoping we would see some deer even if Jacob could not get a shot. Well just when I thought the days hunt was over I caught some movement on the edge of the field and sure enough there were 2 does and 3 fawns headed to our food plot. There were some tense moments as Jacob and I worked to make sure that we were on the same deer (me with the camera and Jacob with his rifle). Luckily for us the biggest deer which was a big mature doe stepped away from the group at about 80 yards and offered Jacob the shot he had been waiting for. Jacob made a great shot with his TC Contender. As you can imagine there was much celebration in that little shooting house! I was so proud of him. He said “it was the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him in his whole life”! Later we found out that my dad had also harvested a doe (Jacob told him later that his was way bigger). We also received word that Amy Bullins (Matt’s wife) had also harvested her first deer ever, another doe and she did it with her Browning/PSE bow!
All in all it was as much fun as I have had in deer camp in as long as I can remember. To have my dad along and to be able to introduce my son to the great sport of hunting and be with him for his first deer harvest was awesome! It reminds me of how lucky we are as sportsmen to have the opportunity to go hunting and to pass on this great tradition to future generations!
A HUGE thank you goes out to Matt and Jason for making this hunt possible!
Until next time good hunting!
John
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