A Moment Worth Remembering

By Rick Montgomery

My oldest son had always liked walking in the woods with me. He liked to go with me when I set up a blind or tree stand. He was only 8 years old and I just couldn’t wait till he turned 10 so we could get him that Jr. Maine hunting license and have him head to the woods for a hunt.

After years of telling him about the woods and showing him things to look for it was time. I bought a New England Firearms .223 caliber rifle and put one of my finest scopes on it. He practiced a few times and much to my surprise he was a definite natural with a firearm. I taught him rights and wrongs before we headed into the woods that year.

I had taken him out on the youth day hunt in 2002 and we didn’t have much luck. He was pretty disappointed thinking when he went in the woods he would come out with a deer. I told him it usually takes time to see deer in the woods and you have to be real patient. Well, the next weekend came. It was real windy, so we decided to go to a spot where I had been watching some nice deer sign. We sat together on the ground near some bushes overlooking a nice area near some oaks. After only about 30 minutes I looked to my right and here comes this 6 pointer walking only 20-25 yards away like we wasn’t even there. His head never left the ground. I reached over and hit my sons arm and said don’t move and pointed to the deer. My sons face lit up like a Christmas tree.

I waited until the deer walked in front of us about 75 yards away and I made a grunt noise with my mouth and the deer stopped and looked right at us. I said, “There you go.” He brought the gun up and just as I thought the deer would bolt, the bang of the gun made me jump and the deer leaned forward and ran for all he was worth!

We walked down and looked for blood. Sure enough, there was blood. I was so excited for him. We started to trail the deer and only about 25 yards away he lay in a heap with a hole straight through both lungs. I had tears in my eyes and couldn’t believe it. It was a great moment for me and my son who was now a true hunter.