Both of my boys were drawn this year for youth hunts through TPWD. My youngest son who is 9 got drawn to hunt Chaparral WMA on his first time entering. My oldest son got drawn to hunt Lake Mineral Wells State Park. They both had successful hunts and made some lifetime memories this past Christmas Break. I'll start with my youngest son's hunt. I explained to him how lucky he was to get chosen to hunt at the Chaparral. He has been hunting with me and his older brother since he was old enough to walk. I'm lucky to have a small place (40 acres) in Brown County that my in-laws allow us to hunt and so we have spent some time in the field together. I allowed his older brother to take his first deer at 10 years old and had planned on doing the same with him until he got drawn. He did his practice shooting and was dead on at 100 yards. The hunt finally was here and to me this was my Christmas gift from God. The first evening hunt we don't see anything but birds. The next morning we finally see our first game at 9:30 when 7 javelinas came out about 40 yards away from us. He wanted to shoot one but I told him to wait as we were wanting a buck. The next morning we were skunked again not having seen a deer yet. We were hunting hard and he was getting tired and upset that he hadn't seen a deer yet. That evening we had more javelinas come out and I told him he could take one. Without hesitation, he shot one about 50 yards away for his first game animal taken. He was excited and so was daddy! We were still set on taking a nice mature buck. We talked to the WMA manager who put us in a different compartment when we told him we hadn't seen a deer yet. The next morning we hunted this compartment and the fog was so thick that we were only able to see out to 40 yards. The fog finally lifted and still no deer. We head back to the WMA headquarters for lunch and we finally see a buck on the side of the road heading back to headquarters. I told him that we finally saw a deer and hopefully that was a good sign for us. We get back out early to the blind hoping that we can see a deer while in the blind now as this will be our last evening hunt. A cold front was moving through earlier than expected and he was getting cold so he sat down in the bottom of the blind to get out of the wind. I then prayed to God and thanked him for the opportunity he has provided me to spend quality time with my son and did something that I normally don't do when praying and asked God that if it is his will, please allow us to at least see a nice mature buck. Around 4:00 I see a deer out about 120 yards away so I tell him that I see a deer and to be quiet getting back in his seat. I then realize that it is a nice buck and that this will be his shooter. I get him ready and get the video camera ready as well. He is shaking, the rifle is shaking and I'm shaking. I like to think it was from the cold front but I know better, buck fever just hit us both! I told him that he cannot take a shot shaking as bad as he was shaking as I was looking at the end of the barrel and it was moving pretty bad. I finally did all I could do to calm him down. He said he couldn't take the shot because it was too far away. I told him that he could do it and that it wasn't but maybe 120 yards out. He then finally said he was ready and I could tell that he was much calmer although I wasn't. He again said that he had a good shot and I told him to take it. He took the shot and the deer jumped up and took off to its left and we lost sight of him after he ran about 20 yards away. I wasn't sure of the shot he took and couldn't really tell if the deer was hit the way it reacted. He immediately said, "I got him daddy"! He wanted to go look for him immediately. I told him we needed to wait and I reviewed the video. I still couldn't tell and just told him I'm not sure if he hit him. He assured me that he did. We waited 20 minutes and went to look for him. We got down and made our way to where the deer was standing when he took the shot. As we got close to the area, I looked in the direction the buck ran and I see antlers and the backside of the deer on the ground about 30 yards away. I was pumped and did my best to have him track him. He picked up his trail and when he was 15 yards away he saw the deer and took off running toward him! He was super excited and it was at that point that the emotions got to me! Needless to say I shed a few tears of joy at that moment. The deer was a 9 point, 6.5 year old deer that field dressed 123 lbs.





My oldest son was hoping for a nice buck but we just didn't see the one that he wanted to take. On our first evening hunt we were covered in hogs. We had a group of about 12 hogs come in and he dropped the first one he shot at. 15 minutes later, another group of about 8 hogs came in and he dropped his second one. I was leaving the blind to get the second one when he told me to get back as he saw more coming in. There were 6 more that came in and he dropped his third hog in about a 20 minute time span. He said that this was so much fun and was ready for more to come in. We never saw the shooter buck we were looking for but he was pumped about the hogs he took. I was excited and was able to get all of this on camera as well.

We were successful on our hunts and made some lifetime memories during this past Christmas break. I thank God for the memories he provided us and that answered prayer!

Great stuff there. Congrats to you and your son

Great hunt!!

Wow! Awesome hunts. That pig is cool looking.

Congratulation to you tbone, and your boys on some fine game. Great story and pictures. BTDT with both of my boys, and the feeling is wonderful. TYH is a great program.

Greatness! Congrats to you all.

That's just awesome stuff right there. Great buck and hogs. Congrats to the kiddos

What a great story. Congratulations to all of you. It can get a little emotional when something like that happens, thank goodness.

that is good stuff right there they did great!!

Congrats!

way to go young man

I just re-read y'alls story Tbone. It get's me everytime. Beautiful buck that your youngest shot, and you've got to love it when your older Son said, "Get back in here, here comes some more pigs"...Priceless.

Man that cool

Congrats to the young hunter!

x 2

Congrats guys! So many good things going on in that story. My son is only two, but I'm already looking forward to the memories.

Thanks for sharing, that is great memories for sure!

Very nice!

Great story and memories!!! Congrats to you and your sons!!!

TxAG, enjoy them even while they are 2 because before you know it, they will be getting ready to drive! Enjoy each stage of their lives because you can't go back in time.

Outstanding!

awesome story, awesome hunt! congrats to you all

Congrats!!! My nephew was on the same Chap WMA hunt with my dad (his grandfather). He killed a nice 10 pt and they also had a great time. Great stuff and thanks for sharing!

Wes