For pretty much my whole adult life I have been a guide. I have guided people on it seems thousands of fishing trips, I've guided deckhands and Captains that have worked for me, I have guided 5 years worth of duck hunters. I have worked thru people that could not either fish or hunt, thats why they hired me. I have worked thru pretty much every single thing mother nature could throw at me, rough seas, cold, hot, wind, rain, snow, hurricanes, high water, low water, and with some failure, I have had much success in my many days in the field and sea, and have been truly blessed.

I have always told myself that I would never be a deer hunting guide, mainly because I never wanted my favorite pastime to become work. Well today it finally hit me that I am once again a hunting guide, and a deer guide at that but its for my son Garrett and thats different. He and I have hunted together his whole life, I can still remember the first hunt, it was in a pickup truck sitting on a gas line, he scared the deer off at 200 yards with both windows rolled up, he was 2. I can remember the first deer we killed together when he was just 5, we were in a double man ladder stand and he had to have a DVD player to watch his favorite movie to keep him quiet. I remember the first buck we killed together a 7 point, right before I shot he got in the floor and held both his ears, he was 6. Then it was his first deer, another 7 point a very good shot 150 yards or so, he was 9, I was so proud most of the other hunters around us like Robbie Braxton, and his mother heard my very loud cheer I yelled out when the buck went down, later that year he also killed a doe, on both shots it must have taken over 10 mins to get the shot off, it seemed like an hour.

Garrett's 10th year was challenging to say the least, we missed a 8 pointer at 60 yards and missed another buck at less than 100. Although I had a good hunting year it was displeasing that my son bombed out. I felt that I had not done my job and it was my fault. It put my guiding instincts to the test! This season, we regrouped. I set up food plots that were more kid friendly at Turn-ro , joined a club in Baldwin Co. that was kid friendly, booked a Texas hunt and we changed guns, one that would not kick, Kims ole 25-06 that has a muzzle break, I also bought some ear protection ear muffs with a radio built in. It made all the difference in the world, opening day of youth season we went to the range and let him shoot, I let him shoot at least 10 times, he was ready.

That afternoon he shot a doe, great shot and he looked at me and said well that was easy! I could see the confidence grow in my little client. Then the big test or tho I thought was the Texas hunt, we broke the ice when Garrett shot his first wild hog, then two days later he made a great shot out of a ground blind on a really nice trophy 8 point, I will say I had a good bit of buck fever running thru my veins on that hunt but he was ice cold, and made the shot with ease. We went to our club Turn-ro in Mississippi and I set him up on a typod stand all by himself and he crushed his first solo buck an 8 point. At this point I thought the pride is running high thru my veins, but that was until this afternoons hunt.

We were back at Turn-ro in Mississippi, It was to be an easy hunt, I scouted out a nice 8 point the afternoon before and all I had to do was place a ground blind close to where the buck came out, tuck it into the brush on the edge of the field, get the wind right and I felt that this would be easy, high success rate, or so I thought. Well we got set up, some deer came out way down the field a few does and a couple bucks, one was a nice 6 point but we were waiting for the 8 to show up. Then it happened, the 8 pointer came out just 50 yards from our blind and walked right out and started feeding broadside to us. I told Garrett to get his gun up and get it on the shooting stix, all was good the buck was just standing there, 80 yards, I thought yea this is going to be easy, and had already started patting myself on the back. Garrett got settled in and I told him to shoot him in the shoulder, he got up on the gun and thats when it happened, "CLICK"! CLICK? YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! No bullet in the chamber. Crap!! I instantly bolted a round in but it was too late the buck heard the noise and was trotting down the field. I just laid my head back in utter disappointment. How could I have forgot to tell him to load his fricken gun? All the money time and effort it took to get to this point and the fricken gun is unloaded, what an amateur mistake!! It took a couple of mins for me to collect myself, I looked and the buck was still in the field but 225 yards away and no shot out of the ground blind. I looked again and he was calmed down and feeding at the end of the field. Fully regrouped, I told Garrett ok this is what were going to do, were going to get out the blind, walk into the field and shoot him off one knee, can you do it? He said that he would try. As a guide I felt that the success rate for this attempt was pretty bad, if not impossible with an 11 year old, but it was our only chance, it was getting late.

Ok here we go we get out of the blind quietly, check! Next lets do a test run on what we were about to do, check! Now or never time we both step out on to the food plot, we get on our knees, I set the shooting stix up he gets the gun up and after a few seconds of picking out the right deer he's on him. I called the shot and boom! I was looking, waiting for the deer to run off, so I was trying to mark the spot of where he was so we could go down there and look for blood or any evidence of a miss which is usually the case on a situation like this at 225 yards. Garrett shot, I heard the bullet hit, "WHAP" the best sound you could ever hear after a shot, the sound of a bullet making a solid hit. The buck fell!! I said nothing, almost in disbelief, looked at Garrett and he said, " I dropped him! I dropped him! I did it!" I said with a very big grin yes you did! The celebration started!

As a guide working thru adversity is was we do, this is how we earn our keep. On this day it worked. It will go down as one of my best days as a guide. Looking forward to guiding my little client on our next adventure!

Good read and congrats

I've always been waaaaay more nervous waiting for one of my younguns to shoot than I ever have been.

good guiding..

My son is my favorite hunting buddy. It's amazing the conversations you can have in a shooting house or in the truck on the way to camp.

Nicely done.

I too guide/outfit for a living and it is a great job when three little things happen at the same time.
1. The weather cooperates.
2. The client Cooperates.
3. The animals Cooperate.

Problem is, those three simple things almost NEVER happen at the same time.

I typically don't get nervous even when I'm guiding for brown or grizzly bears but I always get nervous when a deer walks out on a food plot when I have either of my kids with me.

That's cool.
Congrats to y'all.

Great story. Congratulations to both of ya'll.