1st Day of Young Sportsman Hunt.

The dawn was cool at 47 degrees and cloudy with a south/southeast wind. It had rained the day before and the leaves on the ground were wet, making travel through the brush alittle easier. As we traveled across the horse pin and down the fence line, I disclosed to O'Ryan the direction of travel I thought the deer should be coming from when approaching my blind. Upon reaching my blind I had O'Ryan get into the best possible shooting position as possible and be prepared for the deer to come in very quite due to the wet leaves. Just as the woods began to lighten up enough to begin seeing to the bottom of the hollow, A large bodied deer appeared from out of nowhere and was heading down the trail toward our shooting lanes. O'Ryan being anxious for his first deer was moving about and couldn't sit still. I on the other hand was waiting and trying to watch the deer and get O'Ryan to sit still long enough for the deer to reach the shooting lanes. The deer was now within 50 yards and had just stepped behind a big oak tree which blocked our view of it and O'Ryan just had to look for the deer. Back and forth he rocked, from one side of the tree to the other playing peek-a-boo with a deer. Now I'm still not sure what exactly when wrong but for whatever reason the deer sensed something, it winded us or it saw movement it didn't like and alerted it and the deer flew ever so quietly up the opposite hillside without a sound. I knew the deer wasn't spooked due to no sound as it left the area and was hoping it had only traveled a short distance up the hill with the possibility that it might return to the trail. O'Ryan on the other hand thought the deer had left the country and began moving around again. I assured him the deer could still be back for him to sit still and watch for it to return as I began using my deer call to try to lure it back. We sat there hunting for another 3 hours before moving to another stand site in which we only hunted for about an hour before O'Ryan was ready to give up on his first morning of hunting and go home for something to eat and hot coffee. On the way to the truck I explained to O'Ryan that deer hunting was not always about harvesting a deer everytime your out but was a learning experience and about making memories that will last a lifetime. I only hope that O'Ryan will learn to love the outdoors as much as I do, learn how to carry on our great heritage of hunting for a lifetime to come and learn everything I can teach him and more about hunting the great outdoors.