Of all the great deer hunts I've enjoyed, last Saturday might be my favorite.
It was opening day of modern gun season, and my companion was Miss Hannah Grace, 9, my baby girl.
The night before, I asked my four daughters if any of them wanted to hunt in the morning. They all declined except Hannah, who eagerly volunteered. She was so excited that she jumped up and down and clapped her hands.
Well, we'll see about that, I thought. Experience has taught me that if a kid is hard to rouse on a hunting day, it's best to let her sleep and take her in the afternoon.
When I cracked her door at 5 a.m., Hannah was sitting upright in bed. She popped up and immediately started donning her camo coveralls.
I filled a Thermos full of hot cocoa for her and a Thermos travel tumbler of hot coffee for me. We got a couple of bacon/egg/cheese biscuits at a nearby convenience store, and she was happy.
Our destination was a box stand amid a stand of tall pines. It's one of my favorite places, and we chatted quietly as we sipped our hot drinks.
At about 7 a.m., we saw something that astonished me. A big flock of Canada geese rose out of the pines. That's unusual enough because there is no water nearby, but it really blew my mind when they weaved around looking for corn feeders to raid. I waved them away from my feeder, so they sailed over to another feeder about 600 yards away.
At about 8 a.m., a yearling doe stepped into a clearing about 100 yards away. Shortly after, a mature doe joined her.
I'm very careful about shooting deer with little kids on their first hunt. It's easy to rationalize that a dead animal is the desired result of a hunt, but if a kid objects, I won't do it. We watched the deer for awhile, and finally Hannah asked, "Are you going to shoot one, or not?" She sounded just like her mama.
"Do you want me to?" I asked.
"Yes!"
"All righty, then. Cover your ears."
I waited until the big doe turned broadside, and my trusty Ruger in 6.5 x 55 Swedish roared.
To my great consternation, the deer ran away.
Hannah and I went to the spot where the deer last stood. We found a small amount of blood, but not a clear trail. We walked the direction the deer ran and then walked in expanding circles, but we found nothing.
We returned to the puddle of blood, and I said, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to get on our hands and knees, and we're going to look for little drops of blood. When we find one, we're going to put a hat on it. When we find another one, we'll put a hat on that one, too, and we'll make a little steppingstone trail and let this deer show us where she is."
This was a great adventure for Hannah, and I was amazed that she found tiny droplets of blood deep down in grass that I wouldn't have seen. At first I didn't believe her because they looked like little red pigments that you often see in grass this time of year. But when I touched them, they were liquid.
On hands and knees we crept along, making a hunter orange cap trail. We went about 30 yards when the droplet trail veered to the right. It went another 20 yards until it vanished.
As we stood up, I said, "I'll bet that deer ran into that thicket and dropped somewhere in that hollow."
I waded into the briars and brambles, and sure enough, the doe lay in a dry water course about 20 yards away. If I had walked right to it, I wouldn't have seen it, and without Hannah helping me blood track it, I might have never known where to look. I told her so, and it pleased her immensely.
As I attached my tag, I saw that the bullet had punched both shoulders. It sounded very squishy when I rolled it over, and it bled profusely. It was a good shot, but a bit too far forward.
Hannah refused to sit on my four-wheeler with a dead deer, so I took her back to camp before hauling it out.
When I returned, some of the other guys in my club had convened for lunch. They're a crusty bunch, but Hannah had them eating out of her hand.
She presided over our household that afternoon like a conquering heroine, and she was eager to hunt the next morning, as well. I think I've found a new hunting buddy.
Sports on 11/22/2015