As we began, the wind continued to blow furiously out of the south, as it had done all day. I knew that anything north of us would smell us a mile away. We began about 6 p.m., thinking that if the deer were going to move at all in the warm, windy conditions, it would be during the last part of the day. We crept along at a snail's pace, looking and glassing, (okay, it was me doing most of the glassing), checking every possible crevice that might harbor a deer. James got a little heavy-footed at times, but overall, with the noise of the wind as cover, we were doing pretty well.
Our first encounter was with a nice 2 1/2-year-old buck at 30 yards. We spotted him as we crested a small hill. He spotted us at the same time, but he didn't seem to know what we were. He stared intently at us as the wind blew in our faces. James moved to take a shot, but before he could get into position the deer bolted.
"Wow, Dad, that was a nice buck!" he said. Then he added, "By my standards. I wish he had given me a shot."
ANOTHER CLOSE ENCOUNTER
We were working our way up a hedgerow bordering a bean field when we had our next encounter. "Dad, look!" James whispered as he knelt in the direction of a feeding deer. We could see the deer 75 yards away through a break in the hedgerow.
"It's a buck!" I told James as I settled my binoculars on the deer's unique 7-point rack that sported 6-inch brow tines. "He's a young deer, but he has a very interesting rack. I think you might want to take him."
James immediately got on his hands and knees and started inching toward the hedgerow and the buck. The grass in the hedgerow was tall ,and James was having difficulty getting the shooting sticks high enough to give him a clear shot. In the meantime the deer had no idea we were there and started feeding straight toward us. Were it not for a second deer that moved in above us and caught our scent, I'm sure that this 7-point buck would have been ours. However, along with his buddy, the 7-pointer bolted and left two long-faced hunters alone in the hedgerow to end the day.
AN AGONIZING DECISION
The 2007 Kansas Youth Hunt was a two-day hunt. That made it very hard on a God-fearing, church-going family that didn't make a habit of hunting on Sunday. (Perhaps the Department could help us out in '08 by making this a three-day hunt.) I knew that James would be disappointed about not capitalizing on the 7-pointer and that he wouldn't be content to quit after having two close encounters in one evening.
We hadn't been back to the vehicle for 10 minutes when I heard those piercing words: "Dad, will you take me out in the morning?"
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