Making Memories...

My oldest son, John Daniel, and I set out to the woods on the Friday afternoon of the Wisconsin rifle season together.  Earlier that day we sat together for the morning hunt and did not see much of anything.  Although we both had high hopes of getting a deer sometimes not seeing anything can serve a purpose as well.  –The two of us talked about patience over lunch that day.  We also talked about persistence and how when persistence is coupled with patience over the long haul one will be much more successful not only in the woods, hunting, but also in life.  I realize that this is me talking to my six year old son, but I just hope that he can take even a little away from this kind of talk and apply it sometime in life.

As the afternoon unwound John Daniel and I started to see some deer up and moving around, which was a great sign.  By 3:00 o’clock we had already surpassed our morning total, which wasn’t all that difficult as we had only seen two, but nonetheless it was promising.  The next half hour brought more and more deer to their feet and we were both constantly scanning this way and that in search of a buck that may have eluded everyone so far.  Sure enough, on cue, a nice buck stepped out about 250 yards away.  Both of us quickly tried to get our binoculars on him, but just as we got settled in on him he cruised into the woods.  We had a good idea where he might come out if he stayed moving the same direction we saw him moving on and I readied the rifle.  As the buck stepped out he was facing left and John Daniel noted that he was a “shooter”.  I centered the rifle and told John Daniel to cover his ears.  With a “boom” the buck went down and we knew that he was down for good.  When I turned to John Daniel he was smiling from ear to ear and was already getting ready to go clean the deer!  He then said something that gave me a good inner-chuckle as he said, "Looks like our patience paid off, Dad."  Yes, JD, looks like it did.  :) (If only it was that easy every time.)

The two of us got down from the stand and walked to the downed buck, a nice eight point.  Certainly not one of my largest deer ever, but a trophy that will forever be etched in my mind as a hunt with John Daniel.  After we finished cleaning the deer the two of us drug it back to the truck to open the tailgate and realize that we had an Otter Sled aboard and could have made the dragging twice as easy if we’d have only remembered it.  The two of us laughed about it and I shook my head.  –There’s always a next time, right?  I certainly hope that there are many “next times”.  I look forward to dragging countless deer out of the woods with John Daniel and his younger brother and sister by my side in the many years to come.  This is truly what it’s all about. 

Good Huntin’ ,

Luke