03/20/2022
I was looking back through some pictures from the end of last year and was taken back to the memory of a youth hunt with my 15-year-old daughter Unity.
The day started out with straight line 30 to 40 mile an hour winds with wind gusts up to 50.
I remember thinking she’s not Going to want to go hunting today. it was snowing A little. Would have been severe blizzard conditions if we had a lot of snow.
But visibility was acceptable to venture out.
About three in the afternoon I asked her if she wanted to go hunting and she said sure I’ll get ready. I reminded her it was cold out and blowing, I think she said something like I can dress for that. She was ready to go.I Asked her which spot she wanted to go to. She picked the spot that we had encountered a small buck a few days prior. We headed out. When we arrived at our location we parked the truck and started hiking in. Cautiously we made a loop through the area and didn’t see anything. We are about ready to head back to the vehicle and I thought let’s detour and head up this other Draw, maybe they’re holed up in there.
As we crested the hill and could look down ,there they were a group of mule deer just about three hundred yards ahead of us. We started crawling to get to an advantage spot without being seen. We reached that spot and they had still not detected us. They were about 200 yards away. Unity got set up on the rifle, there was a good buck in the group. She was on him ready For when he would provided a clear shot . It didn’t come first there was a doe in front of him then A doe behind him, not a good angle and then he disappeared into a lower pocket in the valley. We were running out of Day light. I didn’t think we had time to wait for him to come out, so we started to crawl out into the open to see if we could get a visual. As we moved forward he had been moving towards us in the draw. He saw us and started to run up the hill to our right. Unity was ready for when he would stop. He stopped at 200 yards just enough time for unity to pull the trigger. Bang whap. She got him right through the lungs. We made our way over to him. Unity’s first buck hunt was a success. She tagged him and I helped her field dress him then we started to head back to the truck straight into that 40 mile an hour wind. As we crested the hill heading down to the truck we could hardly walk forward the wind was blowing so hard, it ripped my hat right off my head and this was not a ball cap it was a winter hat. With great effort we made it back to the truck and headed home. What a super fun hunt. so thankful to be part of it with you Unity!
