By Rich Miller
On Sept. 16th the temperature felt more like it was the end of October. The wind was blowing a lot harder than I like, but at least it was blowing the right direction. Usually on opening day of bow season it’s always too hot to hunt, but when the season is in a guy has to be in the tree. I was out of town on opening day and wasn’t going to be able to hunt till the next afternoon. I had a lot of pictures on my Moutrie game cameras of several bucks coming into one of our food plots morning and evening. There were a couple of the bucks that I would love to shoot, but it was only the biggest 8-point that was there every day.
On Friday when I got home, I got all my stuff together to hit the woods. My son, Tye, came out and asked what I was doing and where I was going? When I told him deer hunting he said, “Well, I better get my stuff, too.” The good thing about the situation is – when I put my stand up, I put up two hang-on stands beside each other. That way he could set up there with me. Summit makes a Fastback Cub safety harness that fits him perfectly, and I have a safety harness that I hook him up to when we’re on the ground and then hook him up again when he gets to the stand. We practiced it some after we got the stands set up, and he thought he was “it “after being able to climb up there and he had a stand to set in just like Dad.
We got up in the stands about 4:00 and it took us a few minutes to get settled in and get everything done. Tye is just four years old and I didn’t think we would be there very long, but man was he excited to be there! He was asking questions and whispering the whole time. We were there a couple of hours before the first doe came out with a couple of fawns. He was able to see them and watched them intently the whole time. Later on, another doe came by within 15-yards of us. Tye sat still and she never spooked and man was he pumped up – but I was impressed that we were still there. He liked seeing the does but he kept asking me when is Ol’ Big Boy going to come out? About 7:30 there were eight more does and fawns that came into the food plot and stayed there until dark. He and I stayed in the stand till dark and we never spooked the old does. At several different times the deer came within 12-yards of us.
After all the deer left the field and it was dark enough, we climbed down and headed back to the house. I was worried about him climbing down in the dark, but he scooted down the Buck Steps like an old pro. Ol’ Big Boy never came out, but man did we have fun! I couldn’t believe we were able to stay in the stand the whole time, not only being there four hours but it got pretty cool that afternoon with the wind blowing. At one point I told Tye, “Man, it’s getting pretty cool out here” and he said “Dad, you have to toughen up”! I took that as he wasn’t cold and didn’t want to leave.
