Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable “armed nature hike”. I could only hunt the weekend, and my son could only hunt until noon on Saturday. Luckily my buddy and his 2 sons got the wall tents set up Friday, I showed up about 8pm that night, and my son arrived after his HS football game about 12:30.

We saw lots of deer, but a miscommunication between us let a decent herd of 30-ish with 3 shooters go un-molested. We had a Nice father/son “learning moment” there, I had to point out a few things I thought we’d covered years ago. Anyhow, an hour later I spot a lone buck traveling, and we quickly get set up. I hit the Leica’s and it’s at 404 yards. The kid is set up on my right, (MUCH quicker now after the prior refresher) kneeling, with his new rifle on his tripod. Buck is trotting South, and I whisper, “couple inches of daylight on his back, I’ll squeak n stop him, then let the big dog eat!” It’s a calm morning, and I squeak a kiss sound. The buck stops..just textbook, and immediately the .300 roars, and the buck jumps! The bolt racks, another round down field, (miss), buck is quartering away..I know kid is going to throw quick and I whisper…”Aim small”..he takes 2-3 heart beats, buck is just walking now (sick from first shot), and rifle roars again..and the final meat shot is heard. Boom-flop! 3.5yo 3x4 with nice eye guards. Had it skinned and hanging and kid on his way to a job interview at Mission Ridge by noon. Then Home Coming…can’t keep up with kids today!