...and a miss. Another great weekend at 3F! A beautiful sunrise, sunset, great weather, priceless time spent with my little men and we even saw several good bucks. As mentioned earlier, we left Birmingham around 11 Friday morning. We had a good trip over and got settled in the Rat Hole at 3:30 with HIGH expectations. Anyone that's hunted knows how that goes sometimes. We didn't see hide, nor hair of anything! Right at dark we heard two bucks tie up behind us at less than 100 yards but couldn't see them through the WRP. It's always exciting to know you're that close to two bucks, but also frustrating to not be able to see them. We slipped out as quietly as possible and headed to Chuck's in Rolling Fork, which has now become the boys favorite place to eat thanks to the cool quarter machine that gives fake gold jewelry. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of Grayson wearing his gold chain with a "diamond" $ emblem hanging from it in Chuck's. #hammertime Anyhow, on the way from the property a BIG deer ran in front of us. I swung to the left and hit it with the high beams and it appeared to be a 10 that's horns were outside his body when he ran off. He was running with a 6 point that of course walked out in the road and posed for all of us. I think he even groomed himself a bit, thankful for the bright lights I had now blessed him with. I feel certain he was so comfortable with our presence, I could have gotten out and carried on a conversation with him. Big deer aren't stupid...but young ones never seem to disappoint. After a good dinner and a night in the luxurious Rolling Fork Motel, the boys and I were back in the Rat Hole Saturday morning. I've got to brag on these two a little. It was 31 degrees when we got out of the truck and not once did I hear "I'm cold; I'm freezing; I'm tired; I'm bored; let's go to the truck", etc. We had blankets and honey buns (thanks Pop-Pop for the treats and chocolate milk) and just kinda set up shop. Hayes even napped a little as well. About 8:15 I looked out the front window and saw a solid buck at 75 yards and walking right towards us. I quickly got Grayson up and situated and saw there was another buck, nearly identical to the first with him. I had Grayson in perfect position, gun out the window and on his shooting stick. If everything continued as it was going, these two bucks (appeared to be 13-14" 8 points with good mass...I only glassed them for a split second before putting everything into motion in the blind) were going to walk right into the field and within 10 yards of our blind. As they closed the gap to about 60 yards they approached the only place on the entire property that they could be to see where I had parked down the road a piece. They didn't spook, but rather turned and started paralleling the field about 60 yards away. Once again, it's so thick around the field that we didn't have a shot. We just watched them work their way away from us. I apologized and apologized to Grayson for the error on my part and there is no doubt in my mind that these deer would have presented us with a chip shot if they hadn't seen my truck. We hunted until about 9:30 and saw two more does. We spent mid day riding and looking and the boys shot pumpkins with a 22. Hayes blew the nose off of his and was so proud. I think he might be a little shooter in his own right as he ages. We topped it all off with a great lunch from the Onward Store. Also pictured is the landing strip which you can see the number of tracks walking right down the middle. Huge amounts of both deer and hog tracks in this field. We made it to the 3 Way about 3 that afternoon and all was quiet until 5. We had a small 3 point come out and start feeding about 60 yards away. Grayson didn't make a big fuss over shooting him, but I could tell a little piece of him did want to. A lesson in patience young grasshopper. Not 5 minutes later I looked to the north and saw a deer in the road about 170 yards away. I put my binos on it and saw a doe with another MUCH bigger bodied deer behind some brush. I knew immediately it was a buck based on body size alone. About that time, he picked his head up and had a really nice rack to match his 200lb+ body. I guesstimated him as a 120-125" 8 point but didn't look very long. I went into "operation get a shot" on this deer, moving chairs, working around Hayes who had gone to sleep on the floor again, stacking boxes into chairs, getting an elbow rest, etc. for Grayson. I really didn't want him to shoot that far, but he kept telling me how steady he was and how he was right on his shoulder. We were able to watch the deer for several minutes and Grayson waited on a perfect broadside shot. He was controlling his breathing perfectly and had subsided his giggles over being able to finally shoot a deer. The buck was standing perfectly broadside with his head down feeding. Grayson took a deep breath, exhaled and the shot rang out. I was watching through the binoculars when he fired and the deer didn't flinch. Matter of fact, he didn't do anything except pick his head up and look around. While doing this, another 6 point walked out beside him. They went back to feeding and I bolted another round in. That's when I realized the shot had woken little brother and he was on overdrive wondering what was going on. "Dad, I wanna see! Daddy, I can't see. DADDY!!! Dad, pick me up!" He's becoming more and more like a pin ball, alternating bumps to Grayson's chair and the side wall while Grayson is trying to line up for another shot. Grayson is yelling (in a whisper) to Hayes to be still. I'm trying to get Hayes up so he can see. You get the picture. Grayson didn't get another shot off as the deer slowly fed away from us and around the bend in the road. I was very proud of his ability to hold off and he kept saying, "I don't have a good, broadside shot." Maturity for a 5 year old. (Allow me to brag, will you :)) Once the deer fed off, I got Grayson and Hayes in my lap and gave them both a big hug and told them both how proud of them I was for putting in a full day of hunting and sticking with it. I then realized how much Grayson was shaking. He was UNGLUED! I explained buck fever and how it happens and he just kept laughing and laughing. I'll never forget that moment. I also explained the shirt tail club and how we should cut his shirt off to put on the wall. He didn't like that idea at all. We sat together until dark and headed home, thankful once again for a great weekend and blessings beyond measure. Another highlight to the weekend was when Grayson told the grandparents he wasn't feeling too good. When asked "what's wrong?" His reply, "I've got a bad case of buck fever!" Laura and I laughed at that one for a while. Good Lord willing, we'll be after them again this weekend at some point and that big buck won't be so lucky!
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