WI Youth Deer Hunt Oct. 10-11th

This past weekend was my son’s first chance to bag a deer with a gun during the youth hunt. After seeing a real nice 10 pt. on one of our food plots earlier in the week, we had high hopes of seeing him again on Sunday night.

In preparation for the hunt I had thought about having Mitch shoot my .223 with some custom handloads set up exclusively for deer. After seeing the size of the buck I reconsidered and decided to let Mitch try shooting my T/C Omega in .50 cal. I knew the gun was a bit heavy for him so I mounted my Stoney Point bipod to help him manage the weight. Mitch has had a fair amount of experience behind the scope so I knew he could shoot, I just wasn’t sure about the recoil and how it would affect him. A quick trip to the range would let me know if this rig would work out.

We started the shooting session off of bags at 50 yds to build some confidence. His first shot was low, but I know he was thinking more about the recoil than the shot. The next shot was right on the mark so we moved out to 100 yds. Shooting off of bags he did great, 3 shots inside of a baseball at 100 yds. The next 3 shots off of the bipod were just as consistent with the last being about 1″ off dead center.

Due to a busy schedule we only had Sunday night to sit so we decided to head to a south facing food plot that had been getting hit hard. As we sat in the blind enjoying the great view of the fall colors I could tell that Mitch was getting a little nervous that we might not have any action. I reassured him that he needed to be patient and that the action probably wouldn’t start until the last half-hour. It took a little longer than expected but at 6:20 p.m. two groups of does started working their way across the CRP and into the food plot. All thoughts of waiting for the big 10 disappeared when Mitch saw brown and we agreed that if he had a clean shot on a doe, he should go ahead and take one. Just as expected, the does moved onto the plot and started to feed. I let him pick the one that offered him the best shot and ranged her at 108 yds. My last words were “put it on her shoulder and squeeze”… the blind erupted in white smoke, the deer scattered, and we watched her run about 30 yds and tip over. Mitch had bagged his first whitetail with a muzzleloader. I don’t think you could find a kid that was more excited. After some “high fives” and “knuckles” we headed down to check out his prize. I was impressed that he was able to walk right to her as he led the way. Overall, it was a great hunt with a great outcome. I think he’s hooked…