This year I finally got some time off work during hunting season, something I had not managed since 2007, and it was definitely worth it!
This past year my younger brother went from having no interest in firearms whatsoever to getting just about every licence possible (RPAL, migratory bird, Ontario turkey, etc.) and wanted to go for his first deer hunt. While I had been going nearly every year since I turned 18 with our father (I'm 27 years old now), he just never previously had the inclination in his 24 years of life.
Between 2007 and now my father had recovered from a liver transplant, and while he'll never be 100% again he was ready to carry his gun and push the woods. With permission from a farmer in Ontario's WMU 85A we had several bushes to push through.
Rather than be difficult, on the first morning, on one of the branches of the Maitland river my brother sat at a narrowing choke point between two copses of forest with the river in front of him and a corn field behind. I went further up river, my dad pushed in from down river. We'd only been out for about 45 minutes when I heard a single shot from my brother's direction. No need to track, it fell exactly where shot.
My brother, with his buck, which he named Donny:
Myself, my brother, and our father:
Unfortunately, our plan for getting the deer out of the bush and back to the vehicle fizzled, as the farmer and more importantly, his key to the ATV, weren't home. So after dressing it out my brother and I dragged it on a tarp for what felt like 2 kilometers. My father looked close to a heart attack just from watching us. On the other hand, I think he could have died happy from finally having both his sons out on a successful hunt.
Back at our hunting camp that night and the next day:
Finally back in London, before it was skinned and taken to the butcher, with my brother's son Kerry (who cannot stop talking about when he'll be hunting with us):
Finally, here's a bonus picture of me with my first deer a few years back and a few from the area we hunt:
This past year my younger brother went from having no interest in firearms whatsoever to getting just about every licence possible (RPAL, migratory bird, Ontario turkey, etc.) and wanted to go for his first deer hunt. While I had been going nearly every year since I turned 18 with our father (I'm 27 years old now), he just never previously had the inclination in his 24 years of life.
Between 2007 and now my father had recovered from a liver transplant, and while he'll never be 100% again he was ready to carry his gun and push the woods. With permission from a farmer in Ontario's WMU 85A we had several bushes to push through.
Rather than be difficult, on the first morning, on one of the branches of the Maitland river my brother sat at a narrowing choke point between two copses of forest with the river in front of him and a corn field behind. I went further up river, my dad pushed in from down river. We'd only been out for about 45 minutes when I heard a single shot from my brother's direction. No need to track, it fell exactly where shot.
My brother, with his buck, which he named Donny:
Myself, my brother, and our father:
Unfortunately, our plan for getting the deer out of the bush and back to the vehicle fizzled, as the farmer and more importantly, his key to the ATV, weren't home. So after dressing it out my brother and I dragged it on a tarp for what felt like 2 kilometers. My father looked close to a heart attack just from watching us. On the other hand, I think he could have died happy from finally having both his sons out on a successful hunt.
Back at our hunting camp that night and the next day:
Finally back in London, before it was skinned and taken to the butcher, with my brother's son Kerry (who cannot stop talking about when he'll be hunting with us):
Finally, here's a bonus picture of me with my first deer a few years back and a few from the area we hunt:
