I had to wake up at 3 in the morning on Saturday November 20 2021 which sucked because I don't like waking up early, but that's what I had to do so I could go youth deer gun hunting that I have only gotten to do a couple times before. After I woke up we made coco, packed the truck and left; it was about a 2.5 hour drive and I slept the whole way. When we got there my dad woke me up and we talked to our hunt hosts from the Union County Ohio chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. They said my dad couldn't come with me to my hunting spot which kinda sucked, but he already knew that. It would of been really tough if I never got a deer before and he wasn't able to go with me. But my dad was sitting right next to me in our two person tree stand for my first deer 4 years and 3 days prior, and we were able to take in that experience of me getting my first deer together. But my dad trusts me enough now to hunt without him sitting right by me, and he understood that him not coming in with me would increase the chance of me getting a deer because it was only a two person stand and he would have had to sit by a tree to keep an eye on me. This year when me and him went archery bow hunting we were sitting about 50 yards away from each other with him in a tree stand and me in blind, so I was OK with him not being right next to me.
Once we drove to my hunting area, my dad helped me get dressed since I had a lot of layers to put on since it was cold. Me and my guide headed out in the dark and my dad stayed in the truck. After about 10 minutes of being in the stand we heard deer coming from behind us, so that got me excited. There were two deer, and they walked around beside us for about 20 minutes. One of them turned broadside to me in the open at 25 yards, when it stopped walking I aimed at the vitals and took my shot, and I hit it. I wasn't sure where at the time because it was still a little dark and all I saw was the flash of my shotgun. After that, I texted my dad and I took a shot and he was happy for me. He said he heard the shot and was hoping that it was me connecting with a deer.
While we were waiting the 30 minutes like you're supposed to after shooting a deer so you can let it bed down and die, we heard a screech and we thought it was a coyote but wasn't sure. We got down from the tree stand and looked for the blood trail, once we found the blood trail we started following it. I didn't get to follow blood on my first deer, so this was an exciting experience for me. But it was hard because my eyes blend some colors like red together with other colors. Once we found my deer I was so mad that I wanted to punch a tree, the noise we head was a coyote and it ate some of me deer. I texted my dad a photo of my deer with it's guts out of his body. My dad thought I was joking and said it wasn't my deer, but I knew it was because you could see where I shot it and we just tracked the blood trail to it. When my dad got to my deer the first thing he did was feel the inside of the deer, it was still hot so he believed me then.
My guide sent a photo to a LOT of people because he said he had never seen this happen in just 60 minutes before. My dad helped me field dress it because I didn't know where to start since it was torn apart from the coyote, it got a little bit of the ribs and some of the butt. My dad looked at it trying to figure out where to start. We ended up rolling my deer over to let the guts fall out more, then cut the esophagus so they can fall all out. Then he finished field dressing the bottom part of my deer. After he was done we put my drag rope on my deer and I started dragging it. It was hard at the start and I needed help since there were a lot of downed trees and logs to go over. But once I got to the path it was easier and I was able to do it myself.
Once we loaded up my deer in the truck we drove to another farm where everyone was going to meet up after their hunts for lunch. Me and two other kids got deer and I got to tell my story to everyone about the coyote eating my deer in 60 minutes. I had a lot of fun with the hunt and talking to the other kids that hunted since I think there is only one other kid in my school that hunts. Thank you to the Union County Ohio chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation for hosting this youth hunt, I had a lot of fun and learned new things like tracking a blood trail. All the adults there said we did the right thing by waiting the 30 minutes to track my deer, because you don't want your deer to get spooked and run and then you might not find it. Also after this hunt, I decided that I am retiring my Mossberg 510 20 gauge that I used for this hunt. I am going to retire it because it has got me a lot of pheasants and now this deer, and it will probably be too small for me next year. And well I won a Savage 350 Legend hunting rifle in a raffle from this hunt, and I already have a full size double barrel shotgun for pheasant hunting that I will start using.
Something you need to remember is no matter how much you shoot your gun make sure you practice if you are going to use different ammunition, especially if you are going from normal bird shot to slugs. I have shot this gun so many times pheasant hunting so I know how to shoot it, but when I practiced with slugs we found out it shot 12 inches high at 25 yards. So my dad did something that he learned from his grandfather, he put a piece of tubing on my front bead giving me a new sight so I wouldn't have to change my aiming point on the deer. It took a few shots to figure out the length the tubing needed to be, it ended up being 3/8 inches long. If I didn't practice first and just went hunting, I might have missed the deer or barley hit it and only wounded it because the slug would of gone 12 inches high instead of shooting through the heart like I did.
My dad taught me that you need to wait 30 minutes before you track your deer incase that it's not fully dead, because you don't want it to get up and run to make it even harder to find. So I guess I would have rather have my deer ate a little by a coyote in 60 minutes then not finding it at all because I didn't give it enough time to die. The only thing I really had going through my head while I was waiting was hoping that a bigger deer wasn't going to walk by giving me a shot. I only got one deer tag because I only need to get one deer since one can last me awhile for food and I don't want a deer to go to waste. Yes we like to take photos from our hunts to help remember the memories, but we hunt for the meat not to show off. I went into this hunt saying that I would take the first good shot I got since it had been 4 years and 3 days since I got a deer and 5 years for my dad. We are not picky or greedy and I really wanted to make some deer smokies and jerky, and that was more important to me than trying to get antlers that you can't eat.
Once we drove to my hunting area, my dad helped me get dressed since I had a lot of layers to put on since it was cold. Me and my guide headed out in the dark and my dad stayed in the truck. After about 10 minutes of being in the stand we heard deer coming from behind us, so that got me excited. There were two deer, and they walked around beside us for about 20 minutes. One of them turned broadside to me in the open at 25 yards, when it stopped walking I aimed at the vitals and took my shot, and I hit it. I wasn't sure where at the time because it was still a little dark and all I saw was the flash of my shotgun. After that, I texted my dad and I took a shot and he was happy for me. He said he heard the shot and was hoping that it was me connecting with a deer.
While we were waiting the 30 minutes like you're supposed to after shooting a deer so you can let it bed down and die, we heard a screech and we thought it was a coyote but wasn't sure. We got down from the tree stand and looked for the blood trail, once we found the blood trail we started following it. I didn't get to follow blood on my first deer, so this was an exciting experience for me. But it was hard because my eyes blend some colors like red together with other colors. Once we found my deer I was so mad that I wanted to punch a tree, the noise we head was a coyote and it ate some of me deer. I texted my dad a photo of my deer with it's guts out of his body. My dad thought I was joking and said it wasn't my deer, but I knew it was because you could see where I shot it and we just tracked the blood trail to it. When my dad got to my deer the first thing he did was feel the inside of the deer, it was still hot so he believed me then.
My guide sent a photo to a LOT of people because he said he had never seen this happen in just 60 minutes before. My dad helped me field dress it because I didn't know where to start since it was torn apart from the coyote, it got a little bit of the ribs and some of the butt. My dad looked at it trying to figure out where to start. We ended up rolling my deer over to let the guts fall out more, then cut the esophagus so they can fall all out. Then he finished field dressing the bottom part of my deer. After he was done we put my drag rope on my deer and I started dragging it. It was hard at the start and I needed help since there were a lot of downed trees and logs to go over. But once I got to the path it was easier and I was able to do it myself.
Once we loaded up my deer in the truck we drove to another farm where everyone was going to meet up after their hunts for lunch. Me and two other kids got deer and I got to tell my story to everyone about the coyote eating my deer in 60 minutes. I had a lot of fun with the hunt and talking to the other kids that hunted since I think there is only one other kid in my school that hunts. Thank you to the Union County Ohio chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation for hosting this youth hunt, I had a lot of fun and learned new things like tracking a blood trail. All the adults there said we did the right thing by waiting the 30 minutes to track my deer, because you don't want your deer to get spooked and run and then you might not find it. Also after this hunt, I decided that I am retiring my Mossberg 510 20 gauge that I used for this hunt. I am going to retire it because it has got me a lot of pheasants and now this deer, and it will probably be too small for me next year. And well I won a Savage 350 Legend hunting rifle in a raffle from this hunt, and I already have a full size double barrel shotgun for pheasant hunting that I will start using.
Something you need to remember is no matter how much you shoot your gun make sure you practice if you are going to use different ammunition, especially if you are going from normal bird shot to slugs. I have shot this gun so many times pheasant hunting so I know how to shoot it, but when I practiced with slugs we found out it shot 12 inches high at 25 yards. So my dad did something that he learned from his grandfather, he put a piece of tubing on my front bead giving me a new sight so I wouldn't have to change my aiming point on the deer. It took a few shots to figure out the length the tubing needed to be, it ended up being 3/8 inches long. If I didn't practice first and just went hunting, I might have missed the deer or barley hit it and only wounded it because the slug would of gone 12 inches high instead of shooting through the heart like I did.
My dad taught me that you need to wait 30 minutes before you track your deer incase that it's not fully dead, because you don't want it to get up and run to make it even harder to find. So I guess I would have rather have my deer ate a little by a coyote in 60 minutes then not finding it at all because I didn't give it enough time to die. The only thing I really had going through my head while I was waiting was hoping that a bigger deer wasn't going to walk by giving me a shot. I only got one deer tag because I only need to get one deer since one can last me awhile for food and I don't want a deer to go to waste. Yes we like to take photos from our hunts to help remember the memories, but we hunt for the meat not to show off. I went into this hunt saying that I would take the first good shot I got since it had been 4 years and 3 days since I got a deer and 5 years for my dad. We are not picky or greedy and I really wanted to make some deer smokies and jerky, and that was more important to me than trying to get antlers that you can't eat.