DEER CAMP II

Last Fall I wrote about getting ready for deer camp during the hunting season. At that time my eldest grandson informed me that he was going to hunt with us. Well, he is back again this year. He is quite a bit taller and a little bit quieter this year. He still prefers to load his day pack with candy, Oreo mint cookies, Ritz crackers, cheese wiz, and soda pop instead of a small survival kit, extra cartridges, parachute cord, field glasses, field dressing kit, extra fleece pullover, water bottle etc.

I think his dad is going to have him use a .243 instead of my old 30-30 this year. Last year the 30-30 wasn’t ideal for the ranges that we usually saw deer. The .243 shoots flatter and reaches out a little better without any perceivable increase in recoil as far as I can determine.

He has a cell phone this year, but I think he is going to be devastated when he learns that it doesn’t work where we are going, and we will not drive him within range of the nearest tower whenever he wants to call or text his friends.

My son and I have been scouting the area we want to hunt in all summer, and have identified several places that look real good if the deer will come to the same places during the season. This year all the men in the family who are old enough to hunt, plus a couple friends are planing on spending some time with us in deer camp. We think we have enough places for everyone to set up with a reasonable chance of seeing deer, and the camp site is a nice place to relax when people want to take a break.

We always invite our wives to go with us, but they don’t want to go. My wife won’t go anywhere unless there is water running out of a faucet and there is an indoor, flushing toilet.  Yellow Stone Park is as primitive as she is willing to get. I actually met her on a BYU thirty day survival course, called, Youth Leadership 480, while I was in graduate school.