At Christmas Eli got a new deer gun for when he and Josh went deer hunting this year. This was something new for both Josh and Eli so we were all excited about this special rite of passage for our little boy. All Eli needed now were a pair of camouflage pants and an orange hat. Once we bought him those our deer hunter was all set to go.
Modeling his new camouflage gear.
Before taking him to the deer stand, Josh took Eli to a Uncle Clare's land near the levee to practice target shooting with his new gun. They got all set up and then Eli started taking some practice shots.
My little sharpshooter was a natural. He was so proud when he located the first shot he took.
After some practice, he and Josh started going out to the deer stand. The first two times they went they didn't have any luck. They saw deer but they were never in a good position for Eli to take a shot. Eli was starting to get a little disappointed, but then it finally happened!
On January 7th, Josh and Eli went out to the deer stand one last time. Around 7 o'clock that night I got a phone call from Eli telling me that he had shot his first deer. He was so excited!! He took his shot from 137 yards away (Josh used his golf range finder to verify the yardage) and Josh said he shot him perfectly below the shoulder. Josh said watching Eli kill his first deer was one of the proudest Dad moments he'd ever had. I think he was just as excited, if not more, than Eli! When Eli shot the deer, he thought it was a doe, but once they found the deer they saw that it was a spike. Eli was so proud that his first deer had horns even if they were small! They came home to show me the deer, take pictures, and pick me up so we could all take him to the processor.
This was the picture Josh took right after Eli tracked his deer and found him.
Look how excited he is!! I'm so proud of him :)
My happy boys with Eli's first deer.
We took Eli's deer to be processed and he loved being able to tell everyone at the shop his story of how he killed his first deer. A couple of weeks later, we went to pick the deer meat up. Now when I cook deer meat for supper Eli always wants to know if it's his deer that we're eating. He is so proud to know that he helped provide meat for our family. Now his goal is to kill a big buck because I told him he could hang it on the wall in our house if he did. If he continues to be as good of a shot as he is now, I'm pretty sure it won't be long before my house will be decorated with all kinds of deer horns.
No comments:
Post a Comment