Deer hunting tradition passed down from father to son

By By Mike Giles / outdoors writer
Nov. 28, 2003
Deer hunting with family members has become a family tradition with many southerners. So it goes with eight-year-old Daniel Giles and his dad Mark. The Union third grader accompanied his father to the woods last Saturday on the opening day of the new deer season.
Mark Giles had begun his own deer hunting career while hunting with his brothers and kin folk in Webster County some thirty years or so ago. On that cold winter morning, Giles had sat on the "High Stand" when a herd of deer came by. As Jerry Clower was apt to say in many of his own stories, he just aimed that shotgun and shot in amongst them! One fateful pellet had taken down a doe on the only doe day of the year back then.
Now days there are many more deer in most areas of the state. Young Daniel didn't have to wait so long before he collected his first deer. The pair began hunting some together last year as Daniel was just becoming old enough to sit still and wait for the deer.
This would be the first year that he carried his own rifle to the woods. Last year they spent many days shooting and practicing with a .22 caliber rifle and Daniel became pretty proficient with it.
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After getting into their stand around 2:45 p.m., Dad kind of sat back and dozed off after advising Daniel to look down one side of the patch, while he watched the other end and took a siesta. "I was propped back half daydreaming, or dozing,"commented the elder Giles. Suddenly an excited youngster grabbed his dad and blurted out, "Daddy, Daddy, there he is! I want to take him, I want to shoot him," Daniel kept repeating.
The two hour wait had made young Daniel all the more eager to shoot the deer as soon as possible. However, Mark advised the young hunter that they should wait and watch for a bigger deer before shooting this one. And it was a good thing also, because the youngster was literally shaking all over with anticipation.
After he sat down and relaxed a few minutes, young Daniel, calmed down and got ready for business. Taking careful aim he settled the crosshairs on the deer's head and squeezed off a shot. As the rifle roared, the deer crumpled to the ground for the final time.
As they finally made their way to the deer, young Daniel could hardly contain himself as he kept repeating, "I killed my first deer, my first deer!" After admiring his deer, and completing quite a few high fives with his dad, they made their way home to skin and dress the deer. The venison it would provide would be the first meat that young Daniel had brought home for the dinner table. And in the process, another link in a long running American family tradition of deer hunting was established.