The Keepville Church Pastor: Proud Dad Moment

The events preceding this day were very eventful- a prison break a mile from our house, large amount of police activity and the fact our house had been left unlocked while at church. I am sure if you read Julies blog she will post about it. It had every one rather paranoid and I will add...2 days later, still paranoid as he has not been caught. We arrived in Indiana County around 2:00 A.M Monday morning and got a few hours sleep before heading out into the deer woods.

This was a special day for me and proved to be as the day progressed. I was able to take Kenton deer hunting for the first time. It definitely was not the first time for him to hunt or be with me on a hunt. Kenton had been with me for many hunts including deer. This year was different, thanks to a new program by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, young hunters under the age of 12 could shoot a deer under the guidance of a mentor. They are only eligible for buck deer.

As light hit nothing but rain moved in front of us. From 6:30 till about 11:00 a good hard steady rain kept the deer woods quiet. I am not sure of any other year that I have not seen a deer by this time. With such a short night I used my fanny pack that held my rain poncho for a pillow and I laid down on the second floor of the "King's Castle". The Kings Castle is the name given to one of my tree stands that reaches a height of 30'. It has two stories and can hold up 15 guys if needed. There usually is only about 2 or 3 at a time.

This is a picture of the Kings Castle from last year.

Kenton watching the for deer.

Kenton catching up on some winks.

As the rain subsided to a slow drizzle Kenton and I headed to the sweet spot. The Sweet Spot is the best place to kill a deer. I am not sure how many I have killed at that place, but it a natural dish and the deer run down in and around the rim of it. Every year it usually fetches at least one or more. Last year Rod Shumate killed his first buck a nice 10 point at the same spot where Kenton would kill his first buck also. As we approached the slingshot tree(a tree that looks like a big slingshot)we noticed about 6 doe bedded down in the pines on the side of the dish. They slowly one by one were getting up and shaking the water off their back like a dog does after it climbs out of water. We could see water spraying everywhere. A truly awesome sight. The ambled down to our left and trotted down into another patch of pines evidently warned by mother nature of the bad dudes with fire sticks that were closing in on them.

Out of my bag of tricks I produced some doe estrus and splashed some on a tree about 10 yards in front of us. I used my buck grunt and doe bleat in vain for 5 minutes until out of the corner of our view a medium sized buck appeared. So far so good. I scoped him quickly which was not an easy task on a day that water was the most abundant product and appeared every where even on the scope lens. My "dry" shirt was only keeping the majority of the water removed while small specks covered the lens. I could see the buck was a half rack. Prior to this moment Kenton had declared up and down that he was not shooting no dinker (he said he would leave that for Dan Durkee). He wanted a monster buck and emphatically stated so. As the buck meandered towards us I told him what it was and asked if he wanted it. He said loud enough for everyone in Rayne township to hear "YEAH YEAH YEAH"! His eyes were as large as the opening of his mouth which was hanging wide open. I whispered to pull back his hammer and aim for the deer where I had instructed him. The shot was to be made right behind the front shoulder. He hit the deer and I am not sure which shot would killed it, but he had to shoot it again just to make sure. He was so excited he hugged me and hugged me. That was easy Dad! First day of his hunting career with a gun and the first deer and how hard can that be? I have tried to convince him that it does not always work that way. Out of almost 60 deer and 18 buck I have only managed to get 3 on the first day and one of them was last year. I guess my average before last year was 1 out of every 10 years on the first day.

Here is the big bad hunter dude and his monster half rack. It actually was the heaviest rack for one that size I have seen.

After the excitement was over we left the buck lay and got back to our spot and I shot a doe right handed for the first time in about 12 years. Then could not get a shot on a big 8 and 5 other buck that came running past. Take out the rain in the scope factor and there would be a another trophy for the wall. The doe was exactly what Julie orders a yearling or 1 1/2 year old deer. The meat is more tender. I try hard not to shoot button bucks which are legal to shoot as doe. Out of about 40 doe only 2 have been button buck. When you scope them you can see the hair pushed up in between the ears. Some even stick up pretty high.

Papa Wallace stopped by to congratulate his grandson on his first deer kill.

Here is the guide with his successful customer. I wonder if the guide will get a tip for his work? I guess the hug and kiss of an excited son is the best tip I could ever get.

Here is Kenton trying to drag his buck. It only weighed about 3X's what he did. It did not budge.

His best friend and cousin Derek Wallace shot a big 10 point with a real cool rack. It was a main frame typical on the left side with 4 points and the left was a huge beam that went straight up and had two sets of prongs off of it. He was his first buck at age 13. Congratulations Derek!

Here is the crew that shot deer on Monday within 10 minutes of each other. I do not remember any other days when 4 deer were taken out of one drive. TJ with a big spike, my doe, Derek's 10 point and Kenton's half rack.