Joshua's First Deer Hunt

   Saturday, Nov.13, was the Youth Deer Hunt here in Maryland. Joshua, my grandson, and I have been talking about this hunt since he received his Hunters Safety Certificate in the Spring. A very good friend gave me an invite to bring Joshua for his "first deer hunt". I've spent a 35 1/2 year career as a wildlife biologist and I can say that this is the best managed farm for deer, both whitetail and sika, that I know of. I gratefully accepted.
   I admit I was touched and equally grateful when the farm owners son (now taller than I am) came to me, handing me a gun case and said, " I'd like to let Joshua use the youth model rifle that I killed my first deer with on this farm." Definitly a very generous offer...things were falling into place. We sighted in the Remington, Youth Model Seven, 7mm-08 on Wednesday and Joshua shot it well with a 2 1/2 " group, great for any first timer and for most experienced riflemen. I couldn't find any of the "reduced recoil" shells that Remington made but had a regular on the Maryland Whitetail website offer to load some up for Joshua. The rifle loved them and Joshua's shoulder did as well. I really appreciate his kindness in taking his time to load them up.
   Joshua's parents dropped him off at the house on Friday evening. We prepped for the hunt, along with having fun, by looking at kill shots on animals standing at different angles, talking about what animals we would try to shoot, load up a back pack with drinks and snacks and take a shower with no scent soap.
The scentless clothing was set out and off to bed we went as 4 am would come early.
   It was a short night. I woke Joshua up, we got dressed and ate some breakfast. We Google Earthed and looked at the days game plan. We also checked the weather and new it would be cold at first with the wind out of the North...pretty good for our location.
   . It was going to be a fun day. We met the landowner then made our way to the elevated shooting box. We saw seven whitetails and one sika but all were moving and wouldn't give Joshua a shot. One was was too far for his maximum effective distance. All in all a good morning. We left the box at 11 and decided to get back to the same spot in the early afternoon. We met a friend and his nephew for lunch They hunted that morning in a different county and his nephew killed one.
   Back to the box at 2:30 we encountered a problem. Not only did we want to get in that box blind but so did a bunch of wasps...much to Joshua's chagrin. We conquered that problem and got down to the task at hand...killing a deer. We saw and got good photos of a red fox, a bearded hen turkey and a couple of furry old groundhogs. The shadows started lengthening as he anticipated the deer coming to the food plot. At about 4:40 an adult doe came into the plot. Joshua got the sights on it quickly giving him a good quartering away shot. I asked, "are you on it" and he said,"granddaddy, can I shoot?" I said squeeze and at the report, the deer went off its feet for good. He turned and said "I got it granddaddy". I'll never forget that moment.      After some high 5's and hugs we got to the deer for some photos, loaded it up and headed for the lodge where our host soon arrived for a first hand story, more high 5's and more pics.

   It was a fantastic day...a great time together and the reception of another hunter into the ranks. Thanks for a wonderful day Joshua. I am very proud of you. A big thanks to our host...priceless.