RAMONA TAKES HER FIRST DEER

The muzzleloader season for whitetail deer started this past Saturday. My daughter now lives in New Hampshire and has been putting much of her energy into raising a family over the past few years. It has been about six years since she has been able to hunt deer with me. This year she decided she was able to get back into hunting.

(A successful season with a first deer for Ramona)

We woke on Saturday morning to rainy weather and some windy conditions. We decided that getting soaked wasn’t the best way to start out the hunting season. So we waited until the afternoon to sit on stand the first day. We saw no deer, although there were squirrels plenty and I even heard a couple of turkeys and many Canada geese in flight overhead. We ended the day without a sighting.
We were out again on Monday, October 18th, fairly early in the morning. I put Ramona on stand and I circled around the property in hopes of quietly driving any deer toward her stand. She did not see any deer, although I did sight four deer. The first three were definitely does but the third looked very much like a small buck following them. No shots taken at that time.
We went in for lunch and to see my son, her brother, off. He was on his way back down to Pennsylvania. He had gone out with us on Saturday and did some photography while we hunted. Following his departure, we headed to another location for the afternoon hunt. My friend, Gary Bombard Jr., had a ground blind that we set up and waited for the afternoon feeding to start.

(big smile for a successful hunt)

Ramona and I sat in the same blind for the afternoon. About 5:30 p.m. we saw a small deer about 100 yards out in front of us. Another, this years fawn, came out and the first one started bullying the small one around. It charged the little one and struck out at it with it’s front hoof. The small fawn ran away. Suddenly a large doe appeared. Ramona waited for a good shot and when the smoke cleared, she had harvested her first whitetail deer. Following the shot, we watched as five more deer rushed off. Ramona has hunted with me a total of 6 years before this, without taking a shot at deer. Her first shot was a good shot and she tagged a large, mature doe.
The greatest part of this is being able to be side by side with my daughter at such a moment as this. She loves the outdoors! It was exciting to see her excitement and pride at being successful during the hunt. Not only did it provide the excitement of the hunt, but this was a heavy doe that will provide her family with many meals in the months to come. I trust there will be many more hunts in the years ahead.