6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Rusty Stewart, Georgia
“My dream hunt would be a trophy deer hunt with my ‘Home Team.’ You see I have two sons who are now grown men, ages 28 and 26. When they were liittle boys, ages 10 and 8 their dad (me) had not long before deer season started got divorced from the boys' mom. I was a single dad raising two youngs boys. Time together was a precious commodity as I worked a lot to make ends meet. The boys had been after me to take them hunting and the time to do so always seemed hard to find.
One afternoon I had gotten off from work early. When I picked the boys up from day care, they were after me hard about going to the woods hunting. At 10 and 8 years of age, I think just doing anything with dad was fun, even if it meant walking around the woods (hunting). I knew we would be late getting in the woods as it was all ready 3:30 p.m.
We hurried home, got dressed in our camoflauge clothing and hurried off to the woods to hunt. I did not worry about their scent or mine or the tennis shoes they were wearing as I really never expected to see a deer. I really just wanted to spend a afternoon with my boys taking them to do something they had wanted to do.
When we arrived on the hunting property, the boys wanted to go to dad's tree stand and see where I go when I go hunting. I really did not want to take them in that area and spook any deer. However, after some persistent pleas and promises from them to be real quiet, we headed toward the old creek stand where I had a portable climber. The boys followed close behind me trying to step everywhere I stepped and make as little noise as possible. Arriving at the portable tree stand it was 10 minutes after 4:00 p.m. The boys exclaimed, ‘Dad, show us how you climb up the tree.’ Reluctantly I said, ‘Okay.’ I told them , ‘I'll tell you what. I will climb up the tree if you guys will sit here at the bottom of the tree and when I motion you to do so, one of you blow on the grunt call, (they loved to walk around the house practicing on the grunt call), and the other one of you clack these horns together. After some what of an argument about who would do what, they came to an agreement and Dad started up the tree. Reaching the top of the tree, I looked down at two young boys looking intently up at me for a sign to begin trying to call up a deer. I thought briefly that at least we were together having fun and nothing else mattered.
After a few minutes I motioned for the youngest son to blow on the grunt call. He did so, just like he had walked around the house practicing! My goodness, he sounded so loud I thought every deer would run that was within hearing distance of all that noise! After a few loud blows of the grunt call, I motioned for the oldest son to begin to clack the old set of horns together. He too did so with a lot of vigor and intensity! I can only imagine what a sight if one would have walked up on a man up in the tree with two youngs boys on the ground at the base of the tree one blowing a grunt call and one rattling antlers, but whatever. We were together having fun!
After a minute or two I motioned for them to stop. I waited for a few minutes and noticed our time for the day was running out. I then motioned for one to start again with the grunt call followed soon after by the other to start rattling. I again motioned for them to stop and a funny thing happened. I thought I heard a deer coming from the ridge across the creek headed in our direction. I lookded down at the boys and motioned for them to be quiet and pointed in the direction I heard the deer coming from. I could hear the deer grunt with what seemed like every step he took and knew it was a buck. I thought, this crazy deer is going to come right in on us and sure enough he did! He crossed the creek right in front of us! As the eight-pointer stepped up on the edge of the creek bank my .30-06 found it's mark.
I could not believe what had just happened! I looked down at the boys and they were both holding their ears with eyes as big as saucers and grinning from ear to ear! Reaching the bottom of the tree, I ask the boys if they could believe that? We were high-fiving each other and giving big hugs as we hurried to check out our deer. He was a small eight-pointer by most measurements but listening to the boys you would have thought he was a monster. We pulled the eight-pointer out of the woods, strapped him on the back of my Z-28 camero, and headed into town to the local gun shop to get our picture made. We titled the picture of the deer the ‘Home Team Deer’ as we all played a part in the hunt.
Many years have passed since that ‘dream hunt’ with two young boys. The young boys have turned into young men. Then, as now, it seems there is never enough time to be together. The time restraints of work and family make any time in the woods together special. We have often dreamed about the day we could go on a hunt together on a place like the Milk River Bottoms in Missouri where we have watched on DVD Will Primos from the Truth series hunt. Or go on a hunt with Michael Waddell from the road trip series of DVD's to Kansas and hunt monster whitetail deer.
Nowadays, any hunt together with my ‘Home Team’ is a dream come true for Dad! Any time spent together in the woods is special! My dream hunt would be to be together on a dream hunt of a life time with my two sons.”