Fortunately for Preston's sake, he and Steve were invited to Five Star, an elite hunting club just outside of Birmingham, in mid December. One of Steve's clients is a member, and has a son about Preston's age so all four went out. Though the boys couldn't actually hunt, they were able to walk alongside of their fathers and watch as they flushed the birds up and had a successful morning chukar and quail hunting. Afterward, they went clay hunting and target shooting and Preston did fairly well for his first time. It was that day that allowed Preston to get some practice shooting a big gun.
Once he got back home, he was anxious to kill the rodents in our backyard. So he got in position (hidden from all the neighbors) with Steve's pellet gun, and began shooting away at the squirrels. He had success injuring a few, and killing two. However, all of this practice just got him more excited to go out and shoot something bigger.
Several of our friends have hunting land, and when one heard that Preston got a new gun for Christmas from my parents and was anxious to use it....they invited Steve and Preston to tag along with them. They drove up to Smith Lake Friday night, and got up VERY early Saturday morning in hopes of seeing deer. Steve was in a blind with Preston, while our friends were in other blinds.
Pres was pretty excited when he saw his first deer cross his path. He and Steve quickly put a plan in place and Pres executed it, with a clean shot. The doe went down, and Preston was over the moon excited! Miles Smith (younger brother to Fletcher and uncle to Fletch and Bennett) was nearby and he cleaned the deer right there in the field.
My boys didn't bring home much meat, but Pres saved his shell casing and the doe's tail as souvenirs. They went back out that afternoon, but I think the boys were pooped from getting up at 4:15AM, so the lack of action made them sleepy.
