It was a super hot September day for Owen’s first deer hunt. We drove down to a beautiful ranch near Milnor, ND, to find his first deer. I looked at the temperature gauge in my truck and it read a balmy 85 degrees. Man, was it ever hot for this time of the year. We stepped out of the truck at about 5:30 PM and planned to get set-up on a set of hay bales overlooking an alfalfa field. It was so hot with no wind and it felt more like 120 degrees than 85, not your normal September hunting conditions. I thought, man is this worth it, the air conditioned truck feels pretty good right now, but not Owen, he was rearing and ready to go.
We scaled up on to the first row of bales and hid behind the row stacked on top of it. I don’t know what was worse, the heat? or the flies constantly buzzing around and landing on you? I kept trying to slap and kill flies without making noise, but that was just an exercise in futility. We were hot and sweating and getting impatient.
It didn’ take long to see some deer step out to eat in the alfalfa field. Owen and I whispered about getting a good shot and finding a nice doe. We had one all picked out when for no reason she decided to leave and walk back into the trees. We felt some dissapointment, but still had other deer we were watching in the field. Then another nice doe came out and started eating at about 100 yards. We decided she was the one. Owen got himself ready. He curled his body around a hay bale and steadied his gun. I said, “take her when you are ready”. He didn’t need much encouraging and “Bang” she jumped ran, and fell about 5o yards from the shot. Perfect shot! He already shoots better than his dad.
Eastern Dakota Hunter 