Texas Youth Season Pt. 1

I was out for a few days but my e-mail box started loading up with a few reports from this weekend's youth gun season in Texas. The first one is from Brandon Driskill and the story of his daughter Kynlee's first buck.

Here's how Brandon tells it:

"As we sat in the stand, I tried to remember back if it was hard for me to sit still and quiet when I was 10 years old. I just kept telling Kynlee that she has to move slowly when her head is close to the windows. She did her best, as this was not her first hunt with me. She had already bagged a boar hog earlier in the year that went around 125 lbs. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that she wanted it to have some "teeth" to show off to her friends and it didn't.

I had been scouting one morning when I saw a cull spike that had about 6" tines and knew this would be a great deer for Kynlee, my youngest daughter, to harvest. I called her and we talked about her coming and hunting with me that evening, and her first question was, "Does it have horns?", as she wanted something to be able to brag about.

The evening hunt came and went and the spike deer did not show up, but we enjoyed our time in the blind telling stories and watching other deer move around the feeders. She was a bit hesitant at first, but we decided to give it another try in the morning after reassuring her that our deer would show up in the morning for sure. She did not really know how I knew that he would show up for sure, but seemed to believe me.

We arrived into the tower blind and settled in as the sun began to rise. The wildlife started to awake and move, as a deer showed up at the feeder. Kynlee kept asking where our deer was and just told her that he was a late riser and didn't get an early start as the other deer did. She laughed and said he was like momma in the mornings huh? I had no response to that.

Our deer showed up and was at the feeder and after about 15 minutes of trying to get a shot on him, his vitals were always in the vicinity of the legs of the feeder or the ladder leading up to it. I talked her into to trying a neck shot, but she was not totally convinced that she could hit him at 132 yds. The deer jumped the panel at the feeder and began to leave and told Kynlee she had to get on him because he was leaving. She quickly moved around a little and said I got him as she squeezed the trigger. I watched as the buck dropped to the ground without as much as a kick at 150 yds.

We laughed and hugged in celebration of her success. She was mostly excited because her buck had 2 points and that was bigger than here older sister had shot the year before, as it was a 1 point cull buck. We took some pictures and loaded the deer and made our way to meet Tommy at the processing facility.

After hunting with both of my daughters the previous year, I could not wait for this hunting season to get here. Taking your kids hunting is possibly the greatest joy one could have, just being in the stand sharing stories, laughing, and just sitting with them. I owe a great thanks to my lifelong friend, Tommy Peebles; he is the wildlife manager on the Cook Canyon Ranch near our hometown of Ranger. I am fortunate enough to help him with hunts on the ranch and in turn get to spend some time in the blinds with my girls. So, take your kids hunting as they will hopefully someday really know what it means to be able to enjoy that time with their kids, as I do now. And if you’re able, thank the ones that took the time to introduce you to hunting…..

Thanks Dad. "

Congratulations Kynlee and Brandon!

Labels: Texas