On Friday, January 19th, as we headed southwest toward the lease, the rain started to pick up, and the temperature started to drop. When we pulled into the gate of the ranch, it was raining pretty good, and it was one of those rains that chills you to the bone. We settled into our camper, had dinner, and sat up pretty late, mainly because everyone is always excited and pumped up and ready to go. Oliver did fall asleep watching TV over at Chases, and I had forgotten how hard young children can sleep. I had to carry him over to our trailer and put him to bed.

When I woke up about 4:30, it had gotten cold, right around 32 degrees, and freezing rain was falling pretty heavily. By this time, it had rained continually for at least 10 hours, and the ground was a virtual mudpit. The blind I had chosen to hunt this particular morning was what we call "on top", which means that you have to drive up a pretty steep hill to the top of the caprock. I knew that this would be a tough road to navigate, even with 4WD. I decided instead that I would exit the ranch gate, ride up the highway, and get back onto the ranch from another entrance that gets you "on top" via a back road. I did not calculate the extra time this would take, and along with the really muddy conditions walking into the blind, we did not get to our hunting destination until about 6:35 a.m. Poor little Oliver tripped and fell a few times walking into the blind, and he was wet and covered with mud. I let him carry the youth model rifle into the blind, but about halfway I think the extra weight of the rifle had gotten to him, and I carried the rifle the rest of the way.

When we got to the blind, I had carried in about a pound of loose corn to spread around some of the key sendaros and trails that surround the blind. I could have sworn I heard a deer snort when I was spreading the corn, but could not be sure, and convinced myself it was the sound of the rain. I eased back toward the blind and climbed up to join my young hunting companion.

As soon as light started to get good enough to see, I noticed a very large bodied deer standing under the feeder. The deer had to have been right on my heels as I was walking into the blind. I alerted Oliver to the deer, and he got excited immediately. Unfortunately, I could not allow him to shoot due to the poor light conditions, and my inability to identify the deer clearly. The cold rain continued to fall heavily, and the cloud cover continued to dampen the light. To make matters worse, the cold, damp conditions caused my binoculars to fog unmercifully whenever my body heat got close to the lenses.

Finally, conditions improved enough to identify the deer, and really nice one at that. I got Oliver ready and in position to shoot. I have to hand it to this little kid. He was freezing cold and shivering, and at the same time, nervous as a hooker in church. I talked to him quietly, and really tried to calm him and talk him through the shot. Oliver told me he was ready....and BAM!, the sound of the rifle cut though the cold morning air. The deer lurched and arched his back. Oliver had made a good shot. The deer ran NE and jumped the fence before wobbling and lying down about 190 yards to our NE. Oliver was about to come out of his skin, but I explained to him that we needed to sit and let the deer expire before we got out of the blind. We definately did not want to chase a deer in these crappy weather conditions. I had barely gotten those words out of my mouth when out of nowhere a Ford F-150 white pickup came meandering down the road right past the blind, and RIGHT past the downed deer. Naturally, the deer got up and bolted toward the NE, but into brush and out of my sight. I was not happy. It turns out, a new oil well was being drilled on the ranch not 200 yards from the blind, and I was completely unaware of its existance.

We waited about 30 minutes before we got out of the blind and started to look for the deer. It was 7:40 a.m. As we walked toward the intial shot, it became obvious that the deer were right behind us that morning, as all of the corn I had spread on the ground was gone! I found the blood puddle where the deer had lay down, and a good blood trail headed NE toward where the deer bolted. It was obvious the deer had been hit hard, as the blood on the ground was bright reddish pink lung blood. I followed the trail about 25 to 30 yards when it abruptly ended. Now the light conditions were still not very good, and I did not have my glasses, but the trail just stopped. What was really bad was the fact that the rain conditions continued to degrade what trail was on the ground. We searched and searched, but could not find that deer. I called my friend Chase and my son Bobby to come up and help as they were duck hunting nearby. We all searched for that deer until 10:20 in the morning. Little Oliver was a trooper, the combination of the excitement, cold and rain had exhausted the poor little fellow, and I had to get him back in the truck and run the heater for him.

Unfortunately, the cold conditions caused my camera not to work after I took an initial picture of Oliver right before he climbed into the blind, but as it got warmer later in the day, I was able to get these photos so that you can see how his day turned out for yourself.........

Oliver had a great youth weekend.

Images and Files: View all 4 photos / videos here.