Kai's Bookcliffs Buck 2018
Not everyone can say their story began in the Bookcliffs, but Roy and I can! Our parents met in the Bookcliffs at deer camp in 1970, the year dad got back from Vietnam. She was cooking pork chops, taters & gravy in the camper, he came in and just never left, I guess! We've spent countless weekend in the Bookcliffs hunting, getting wood & chasing critters and it's just our favorite place to be. Pretty special to us. My 2 brothers & I have been putting in for Bookcliffs deer for years, just so we can hunt deer out there again, but we never draw, so we were pretty excited when my lucky lil' 14 year old son, Kai, drew a Bookcliffs Deer tag this year. A chance to hunt deer in the Bookcliffs again? Hell yeah!
I let him miss a week of school- good thing he's a freshman and football was over... he wouldn't have been able to skip practices of he were older so it was good timing. I was able to hunt with him the first 2 days and had planned to take a week off work, but shoot...I can't take any time off from my other job...my mom gig...& I've got 3 other kids...so i had to miss a few days of the hunt for work, state volleyball, a football Banquet & some other stuff & my husband couldn't take time off work either, but my little brother, bless that man, took the week off work and took the kid hunting. They hunted hard, covered a lot of the Bookcliffs and saw a lot of bucks. Passed on some decent bucks, got sick of seeing 2 points, and just never found the right buck. It was frustrating at times, spirits began to sag by the end of the week, but I & my 12 year old son made it back out on Friday, the final weekend of the hunt, and those two were pretty happy to see us...kinda the boost they needed to reenergize.
As we were gearing up for the evening hunt I was reminded of something A friend of mine had posted on Facebook the other day. It was a pic of a feather she'd found and the caption said "When you find a feather that means an angel is near". I thought it was kinda sweet. Anyway, I had ended up driving my dad's old pick-up (he died in 2009) & as we were heading out for the evening hunt i flipped the visor down and moved it over. Then, for some reason, I flipped the 2nd smaller visor down and a feather fell down...just a random feather Dad had probably stuck up there...floated down into my lap. I knew then that Pop was hunting with his grandson and we were gonna get lucky & find THE ONE that night.
And he did! He and my brother were off down a ridge while i was looking in another spot when he put the smackdown on a 4x5 buck with tall antlers and a lot of character...a cool 5th point and a curvy back fork and beautiful double brow tines. One shot with my Grandma's trusty .270!
Lots of fun, great memories for my son and a great time guiding his nephew for my little bro. Pretty cool buck too! He's happy with it.
Not everyone can say their story began in the Bookcliffs, but Roy and I can! Our parents met in the Bookcliffs at deer camp in 1970, the year dad got back from Vietnam. She was cooking pork chops, taters & gravy in the camper, he came in and just never left, I guess! We've spent countless weekend in the Bookcliffs hunting, getting wood & chasing critters and it's just our favorite place to be. Pretty special to us. My 2 brothers & I have been putting in for Bookcliffs deer for years, just so we can hunt deer out there again, but we never draw, so we were pretty excited when my lucky lil' 14 year old son, Kai, drew a Bookcliffs Deer tag this year. A chance to hunt deer in the Bookcliffs again? Hell yeah!
I let him miss a week of school- good thing he's a freshman and football was over... he wouldn't have been able to skip practices of he were older so it was good timing. I was able to hunt with him the first 2 days and had planned to take a week off work, but shoot...I can't take any time off from my other job...my mom gig...& I've got 3 other kids...so i had to miss a few days of the hunt for work, state volleyball, a football Banquet & some other stuff & my husband couldn't take time off work either, but my little brother, bless that man, took the week off work and took the kid hunting. They hunted hard, covered a lot of the Bookcliffs and saw a lot of bucks. Passed on some decent bucks, got sick of seeing 2 points, and just never found the right buck. It was frustrating at times, spirits began to sag by the end of the week, but I & my 12 year old son made it back out on Friday, the final weekend of the hunt, and those two were pretty happy to see us...kinda the boost they needed to reenergize.
As we were gearing up for the evening hunt I was reminded of something A friend of mine had posted on Facebook the other day. It was a pic of a feather she'd found and the caption said "When you find a feather that means an angel is near". I thought it was kinda sweet. Anyway, I had ended up driving my dad's old pick-up (he died in 2009) & as we were heading out for the evening hunt i flipped the visor down and moved it over. Then, for some reason, I flipped the 2nd smaller visor down and a feather fell down...just a random feather Dad had probably stuck up there...floated down into my lap. I knew then that Pop was hunting with his grandson and we were gonna get lucky & find THE ONE that night.
And he did! He and my brother were off down a ridge while i was looking in another spot when he put the smackdown on a 4x5 buck with tall antlers and a lot of character...a cool 5th point and a curvy back fork and beautiful double brow tines. One shot with my Grandma's trusty .270!
Lots of fun, great memories for my son and a great time guiding his nephew for my little bro. Pretty cool buck too! He's happy with it.
