We woke up on the first day of gun season at 6am to the sound of the rain which promised to be a good all day soaking.We got out of the house just as it started getting light, made a quick stop to get some donuts and coffee and headed to pawpaws house around 6:45am.The rain quickly soaked through Nathan’s hunting coat so we broke out the poncho. He sat there playing with the rain drops on the plastic but never complained a bit.

The woods were very quiet and devoid of the usual gun shots that normally would sound as if we were in the middle of a war zone. Most of the hunters decided that the weather was not ideal hunting conditions and elected to stay home. I don’t mind the rain, mostly because of my experiences with my dad and our hunting club in Pennsylvania, rain never kept us in the cabin.

I decided that it would be best to stay on the ground so I picked out an old dead-fall that would suit the both of us so that I could get him set up for a shot with out too much trouble. Perhaps getting up in that tree stand (which is big enough for 2) would have been a better idea to sitting on the wet ground by keeping our butts a bit drier.

We sat there a good two hours before Nate started getting bored and because of the rain and lack of hunters pushing the deer around, I thought it would be best if we did some walking. Ok, so we should have sat there for 15 more minutes because no sooner than we got moving I saw three small does coming down the hill at us. We didn’t spook them too bad so instead of heading to the next county, they hopped up the hill a bit, moved to our right and started back down the hill.

I was able to get Nathan set up for a quick shot and flipped open to scope covers for him. As they came down the hill we could only catch quick glimpses of them and by the time he got them in the scope they were behind the brush again. We waited there watching those little ghosts for about five minutes but they never moved into the clear for him. He never took the Southern Ohio “flushing” shot and never wanted to just blast the brush with a volley of lead that many seasoned hunters tend to do. All he kept saying was “I can’t see them good enough”. That made me so proud because I have always told him what my dad always told me; that you never take a shot unless you are 100% sure you can hit your target.

I think it’s about time for me to start shopping for a youth model .410 so he can have his own hunting rifle and start target shooting for next season.

overcast
Temp: 48°F
Humidity: 87%
Wind: Calm
Dew Point: 45°F
Barometer: 29.90″ Hg (1013 hPa)
Clouds: overcast
Conditions: light rain
Visibility: 2 1/2 miles
Sunrise: 07:22 EST
Sunset: 17:08 EST
Gathered at: 10:18 2007-11-26 EST