10 Best Swarovski Scope For Long Range Hunting

Best Swarovski Scope For Long Range Hunting in 2023

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A Deer Hunting Trip with My Son

My brothers built what we refer to as the "condo" stand. They built this big tower of a deer stand in the middle of one of my dad's fields. The deer stand has 2 flights of stairs going up to it and they even have actual windows and it's carpeted

Hubby told him that if he decided to go hunting, his muzzle loader had the powder and the bullet in already, we'd just need to put in a primer. No big deal, I thought to myself, one shot and we can come back home, (yeah right). Anyone who knows me knows that I'm about as country as cornbread and I've been around guns all my life and I can handle a weapon better than most men. This is a muzzle loader and while I have the concept down and I understand how it works, I've never shot one, never loaded one, never dealt with one at all other than seeing others do it.

So, my son calls my dad and asks if it's ok if we go up there to hunt til dark. It's around 4pm, and it gets dark just a little after 5. Dad says ok, so we drop little sister off at grandma's and we drive up past the cemetary, through the field toward the "back 40" where the condo stand is located. I've never seen this stand, or been this far back on my dad's property, he's had it for a few years but it's not where I grew up, so I'm taking directions from an 11 year old. My son tells me where to park, and I look off in the distance and see this huge tower stand way up on top of a hill, I didn't say it out loud but I was thinking " We've gotta walk ALL the way up there?"

We put our orange vests and hats on and my son throws the sling over his shoulder and we begin walking up the trail. The trail is covered with fresh fallen leaves, so there's virtually no way to walk without making noise, just as I'm thinking to myself that I was being pretty quiet considering the terrain my son throws his arm out in front of me and puts his forefinger to his lips to indicate that I'm making entirely too much noise. Stiffling back the "You're making more noise than I am" comment, we continue on. Over every hill he throws his arm out in front of me and tells me he wants to peek over the hill to see if there are any deer already in the field.

We finally make it to the stand, now as I mentioned, I've never been here before, I've only heard tales of this condo in the sky. The first flight of stairs is narrow, but we make it safely, the second flight of stairs appears even more narrow and the mother in me immediately hones in on the fact that there needs to be a handrail on the left side. I turn over my shoulder and tell my son to be careful to which he replies, " I've fallen before." Had I been at home when he told me that he would have gotten a lecture on being careful, and telling me when things happen etc, but since we were in the middle of an open field where the rules of hunting dictate you make as little noise as possible, I let it go and told him to be careful again. The makeshift ladder that enters the stand from the floor goes straight up, they way it's built you have to climb the ladder then hoist yourself onto the floor. I put the gun in first and then hoist myself up, then turn to help my son, and he quickly informs me he's done this before.

There are 2 chairs in the stand for our comfort and convenience, there are a few other things there left by my brothers, a pair of binoculars, which I notices were covered with bird droppings and some spent cartridges on the floor. My son tells me that if he sees a deer, he will need my jacket. When I asked why he said he'd never shot a muzzle loader before and he was scared it would kick. I told him he didn't need to worry about that, we were using a light powder load not to mention the fact that when he got a deer in his crosshairs he wouldn't even feel it when he shot.

There are windows on each wall, so my son and I rotate every few minutes , gazing out the windows, listening for rustling leaves, then changing positions and doing it all over again. After about a dozen rotations I'm looking out the west window and I see a deer come out from the woods and walk behind a brush pile. I whisper to my son, "There's a deer" he doesn't reply, "Jacob, Theres a deer" I whispered again. Then I hear "You promise?" He thought I was teasing him. I said "Yes, I promise" he reaches over and gets the gun out of the corner and I point out that the deer will be coming from behind the brush pile. When it appears, I can't tell if it's a buck or a doe, I can only tell it's a deer. He doesn't care either way, he just wants the deer. By this time he's gotten a case of buck fever, his voice is quivering and he's got that rush of adrenaline that all hunters get when they are staring through a scope at there quarry. The deer is pretty far off so I keep whispering over and over "be patient" and "wait for your shot" The deer moves closer, grazing and occasionaly looking around. He finally gets into range but is standing directly facing us. My son asks if he can shoot, I tell him No, just wait til he quarters away, I told him to remember everything he knows about shot placement and making a good hit. The deer finally turns broadside and he asks again if he can shoot I told him once he felt like he had a good shot to go ahead.

He pulls the trigger and the entire stand fills with white smoke. I can't see anything for a good 5 seconds. When the smoke clears we see the deer running to the left, he stops after about 15 feet and begins grazing again. I told him he missed and that was our only shot. His eyes teared up and I hugged him and told him it was ok. Every hunter missed at some point and that it was just part of hunting.

I told him we needed to wait until the deer left before we got out of the stand so they wouldn't spook of the area. We waited around for a while and that deer just wouldn't leave. I told my son to make some noises to scare him off, he started off by whistling. The deer just looked up and went back to grazing. Then he made some louder noises, deer still not scared. Finally my son begins yelling "GET OUT OF HERE!" That deer didn't care a bit, didn't scare him, didn't even phase him. So my son then gets the idea that I need to climb down, run, not walk, back to the truck, go home and get some more bullets and powder. I tell him I'm afraid that even if it didn't scare the deer off when I climbed down that it would be too dark by the time I got back. Well his sad little puppy dog eyes got me and I agreed, I quitely climbed down the stops and ran that long way back to the truck and hopped in and drove back home and got more ammo. I hurried back, panting and out of breath I finally made it to the stand again. I climb in and get the gun, he points out 2 more deer in the field. I drop the powder pellets in the gun and try to put the bullet in but we are using sabots, and the sabot end came off and stuck in the end of the barrel, well call it a blonde moment or ignorance or both, but I convinced myself that I was supposed to take that end off. It's getting really dark in the stand and I can barely see so I'm feeling around on the floor to find something to help me pry that little piece of plastic out of the end of the barrel. Finally I break a piece of the bark off of a cedar pole and manage to get the plastic piece out, I drop the bullet in and use the ramrod to try to push it in the rest of the way and it won't budge. I pushed so hard I thought I'd break something. Then I told myself maybe I got the wrong bullets, maybe I've just tore this gun up, maybe my husband is gonna KILL ME. I tell my son it's too dark to shoot anyway and that we need to get home so I can figure out how to get this bullet unlodged from the gun.

For all you non hunters it's not a bullet filled with gun powder, its the actual bullet, the gun powder is in pellet form and seperate from the bullet. We make our way back to the truck, my son directs me to a short cut out of the woods and we get back home safely, disappointed but safe. I find my husbands gun box and get the breach plug tool out and remove it so that I can get the powder out so that I can figure out how I'm gonna get the bullet unlodged. My son looks at me and says "Do you know how to do that?" I smiled and said "Well, I obviously don't know everything, and despite the way it seemed in the tree stand I'm not a complete idiot". I get the powder out and I try everything I can think of to get the bullet out, but it won't budge. So now as bad as I hate to I call hubby and tell him our story and ask him how to get the bullet out. He tells me to use some bore cleaning pads and use a cleaning stick and just put pressure on it. It works like a charm. The bore cleaning pads also lubed the barrel and when I tried to reload it, it went in much easier. So now the gun's sitting on ready in the corner I promised him that if my brothers didn't take him tomorrow that I would take him again. He told me that he liked going hunting with me better than going with him.

Mark one for the country redneck momma!