Hatchet gave you guys the news, now for the details of the grueling excursion. started with an early call to the school, kid was feeling fake-sick so I had to keep him home... yeah right, no schools ever going to interfere with this kind of stuff.
anyway, we met up with matt early in the afternoon and headed out to the hunting grounds. after we got everything loaded into the packs we headed up the side of the hill, it was a relatively easy 2 to 2.5 miles, not all up hill. came around a corner to glass a half dozen does just chilling' in the shade, matt put the spotting scope on them to verify there weren't any boys running around looking for the ladies. No dice, girls night out so we moved on up the canyon a little further searched and glassed for a bit but saw nothing so we decided to move on again. we quietly work our way around another finger and bang, there's a little doe just enjoying a cool evening with some food and then, surprise, surprise,surprise, the young buck is a little off to the left. we get the kid out of the truck.... er tell the kid to drop his pack and chamber a round, quietly.... we don't want to jump him, it's already going to be tough beings the wind was howling, the sun was in his face and the deer was about 240 yards away.... the kid lined him up with the help of matts shooting sticks, dropped the hammer and it was done. He hunched his back, staggered around for a minute or so and dropped like a rock!
ok, that was a bit of a fish story, now for the truth.... the hiking was really limited, we did glass the does and checked some other canyons but we were early on in the hunt, just driving to see of there was something in the distance we could get a stock on, we were all prepared to do some hoofing but it just worked out our way, we really did just stumble on this guy as we worked around a finger and since they haven't seen any pressure in a while, they just stayed there kind of curious.... bad move. final shot was probably 20 yards, bout right matt... up a little hill and the kid made a perfect shot. I actually had to tell him ahead of time that the gun was sighted in at 200 yds so if you get something way closer you'll need to drop the cross hairs down just a tad, he must have remembered because it was a perfect shot with a quick kill. I did catch a little first kill sadness there for a minute, no tears and it didn't last too long, he got in on the cleaning a little too. used a ruger model 77, .270 with 130 grain copper bullet.
really couldn't draw up a better plan for a kids first go, it was a piece of cake so he doesn't know how challenging it can be but he knows he enjoyed it and wants to do it again. money well spent, matt was great and the results were too. now I gotta hurry up and get this skull cap off the stove before the wifey gets home and see's what I use her big pot for.... highly recommend hooking up with matt if you want a friendly experience, looked to be a good number of animals out there. I know they get tougher but this one was quick, easy and fun. thanks again Matt!!!
anyway, we met up with matt early in the afternoon and headed out to the hunting grounds. after we got everything loaded into the packs we headed up the side of the hill, it was a relatively easy 2 to 2.5 miles, not all up hill. came around a corner to glass a half dozen does just chilling' in the shade, matt put the spotting scope on them to verify there weren't any boys running around looking for the ladies. No dice, girls night out so we moved on up the canyon a little further searched and glassed for a bit but saw nothing so we decided to move on again. we quietly work our way around another finger and bang, there's a little doe just enjoying a cool evening with some food and then, surprise, surprise,surprise, the young buck is a little off to the left. we get the kid out of the truck.... er tell the kid to drop his pack and chamber a round, quietly.... we don't want to jump him, it's already going to be tough beings the wind was howling, the sun was in his face and the deer was about 240 yards away.... the kid lined him up with the help of matts shooting sticks, dropped the hammer and it was done. He hunched his back, staggered around for a minute or so and dropped like a rock!
ok, that was a bit of a fish story, now for the truth.... the hiking was really limited, we did glass the does and checked some other canyons but we were early on in the hunt, just driving to see of there was something in the distance we could get a stock on, we were all prepared to do some hoofing but it just worked out our way, we really did just stumble on this guy as we worked around a finger and since they haven't seen any pressure in a while, they just stayed there kind of curious.... bad move. final shot was probably 20 yards, bout right matt... up a little hill and the kid made a perfect shot. I actually had to tell him ahead of time that the gun was sighted in at 200 yds so if you get something way closer you'll need to drop the cross hairs down just a tad, he must have remembered because it was a perfect shot with a quick kill. I did catch a little first kill sadness there for a minute, no tears and it didn't last too long, he got in on the cleaning a little too. used a ruger model 77, .270 with 130 grain copper bullet.
really couldn't draw up a better plan for a kids first go, it was a piece of cake so he doesn't know how challenging it can be but he knows he enjoyed it and wants to do it again. money well spent, matt was great and the results were too. now I gotta hurry up and get this skull cap off the stove before the wifey gets home and see's what I use her big pot for.... highly recommend hooking up with matt if you want a friendly experience, looked to be a good number of animals out there. I know they get tougher but this one was quick, easy and fun. thanks again Matt!!!
...... And I have to say its all BS...... The guy is a memory maker!! 
