Center Feature:

Setting up for Success
Making a hunting partner for life

By Brad Hanson

The rain had stopped just before daylight on the second morning of Vermont’s Youth Deer Weekend. As my youngest son, Ben, and I made our way up to the pop-up blind I had set up in a funnel a month earlier, I couldn’t help but think conditions could not be any better for Ben to have a chance to harvest his first deer. 

We arrived at the blind about 20 minutes before daylight, made ourselves comfortable in our chairs, and waited for daylight. Just before 7 a.m. a spikehorn materialized seemingly out of nowhere 30 yards in front of us.

It was classic; the shot of adrenaline and excitement of a young hunter. “Dad, I can’t see through my scope!” Ben whispered. Meanwhile the little buck was stomping and looking right through our blind from 20 yards away. Ultimately, he decided he needed to be somewhere else. A couple of quick grunts brought him back. The shot followed, and walking up to my son’s first deer is a memory we will both carry for the rest of our days.

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