Asked the oldest if he wanted to go with me this afternoon to shoot doves as I had planned to shoot doves and then ease into a deer stand for the last hunt. He said sure, but didn't want to deer hunt long because he hates sitting still. I told him we wouldn't sit to long because we had some fireworks to shoot.

Got in the dove field and settled in around 245, then the birds came in several groups and well it was ugly. My shooting was terrible and of course I got asked if I got one? It wasn't until the second or third drove of birds came in to where I was sending him out to pick up my birds fairly consistently. I ended up scratching out 11 birds before I told him that we were going to ease in to the deer stand for a little bit and he was ok with it. I think it was because he was tired of retrieving birds.

We get settled in the deer stand around 445-500 and of course he had the proverbial "ants in his pants" but he finally settled down. Around 5:50 I spotted a doe out of the blind and I watched her and another through the binos for a little bit before letting him know there were deer in the field. When I told him, I made sure he could see the two does. There was also a smaller deer that I had to make sure I had my eyes on. When he saw the deer, the excitement in his voice when he tried to whisper shoot them dad, shoot them was a sound I won't soon forget. I watched the larger doe get away from the other two and squeezed off a nice shot. Roy was like did you get her dad and I was like yes sir. We will go look for her after we get the truck. He climbed down the stand was telling me to hurry up as I was climbing down. I sent a few texts to those nearby that I shot a doe. We walked over to the corner of the field and there she was piled up about where I shot her. When Roy saw the deer he couldn't believe it and was happy to have been able to be in the stand.
The landowner and other buddy showed up and we got her loaded up and to the processor we went.

On the way I asked Roy if he wanted to shoot a deer next weekend for youth dayand he is all about it.
It was a good way to bring in 2024. 11 doves, 1 doe, quality time with my oldest son and good friends.

Now to focus on making things better than 2023