The Hunt

For a 2nd time in a life time, J.D. drew out again for the hunt! It was for the west side of Southern Utah, so we hunted in the fields of Holden. Now I may have mentioned this in a past post, but just in case I can't help but truly believe that anytime any of us Shelley girls have ever gone hunting with the boys, it is then when they actually get something. J.D.'s first buck, I was with him the 3rd and final night that he was able to hunt....and yes he got a buck. This time, I chose to go again on the last night he was able to hunt. We had chose to sit in a spot right where the deer would come out. I finally told J.D. that if we stayed there the deer wouldn't come because they'd smell us, so we'd better move. So we did, and what do you know.... within 15 minutes here came a buck right where we had been sitting. J.D. shot once, missed! Shot twice, hit! BUT we thought we missed because the buck took off back into the brush. So, as the buck was headed back into the brush, J.D. shot a third time. 

Luckily J.D.'s brother Chet was scoping out the brush for us on top of the hay stacks, so he called and said J.D. had hit the deer the 2nd time and to go start looking before it gets too dark. So we had back to where we saw the deer. We found tracks, but no deer. J.D. had me stay by the tracks as he went around the little hill. I didn't exactly stay put. I started up the hill, and as I did WHAM! The deer jumped up right in front of me! I yelped...quietly. Then I started panicking and clapping for J.D. to come back. I didn't want to talk in fear of scaring of any other deer that might be headed towards the field. J.D. comes running back and we both start up the hill again. We found him, a 3 point. Although his hip and back legs were completely busted up and bleeding, he was still dragging himself away from us. However, we couldn't put him out of his misery because we wanted the others to have a chance at getting a buck if there were any coming. So, we followed him slowly. Finally 20 minutes later, with no other buck in sight, it took 2 more shots to put the deer down. Then, they started gutting it....so gross, foul smell, being pregnant, I just turned around and looked at the stars. 

Here is J.D. holding his buck in the background, Tim (a friend), Chet, and Parker all holding the coyotes J.D. killed while looking for a buck. 2 of the them are J.D.'s, and the last one is Parker's. 

J.D. took his little man Dawson hunting too. Dawson was so excited, woke up at 5 am with J.D. and hunted all day with him without one complaint. Dawson had a blast because he got to help shoot the coyotes! He was so stoked! AND he even got to wear his new camo that Uncle Choc gave him for his birthday!

 The night I went hunting with J.D., Dawson hung out with Molly and Lucas and their family. He ended up in a Jedi costume! SO here's our family picture with a Jedi, 2 coyote heads, and a buck.

 Here's our little hunter next to his first coyote kill!

 The last day of the hunt, Parker was still in need of a buck. So J.D. took him out, and this particular deer was so far away from where they were sitting that Parker didn't think he could hit it. So he gave J.D. the go ahead to shoot for him. One shot and he was down. However, they could not find this sucker anywhere! So J.D. went looking one more time the next morning and found him.

 All in all it was a good season. We made $100 off the coyote heads, and got some deer jerky. J.D. and Dawson had such a great time, I had fun with J.D. when I got to go, and we were all pretty proud.