My son James was able to call into range and bust two bigmouthed longbeards on his own.
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It all started with the spring turkey season across the rugged mountain country of southeastern Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee.My son James was able to call into range and bust two bigmouthed longbeards on his own.Next, he hit the woods hard every weekend with me and his grandfather to hunt bushytails amongst the tall timber.During this time, he was able to accurately drop a total of 118 squirrels with his bolt-action .22 rifle.In fact, most of these squirrels were headshot, which is not too shabby for a 14-year old boy who has grown up in the technological world of I-pods, cell phones, texting, and video games.When October rolled around, all James could talk about was tall tines and monster buck sign. We spent hours in the woods hanging trail-cams, glassing food sources, and setting up stand locations. He was fired-up and ready to get back on the trail of a high-racked 8-pointer that he had almost shot during Kentucky’s youth season the year before, but thick cover had allowed the buck to escape.Once again on opening day, the same buck tried to ease through the thicket and James smoked him with his .270 bolt-action rifle not five yards from where we had first encountered the 8-pointer the season before.Next, during the month of November, we headed out of state for another public-land rifle hunt. During last spring’s turkey season, James had picked out the perfect spot to ambush a rutting buck.The area was still covered up with hot sign and on opening day James was able to make lightning strike twice.Just after daylight, he lowered the boom on another heavy-racked bruiser that sported 11-points and scored in the low 160’s. At the conclusion of this season, James had accounted for 2 nice longbeards, 118 squirrels, and 2 awesome bucks. Without question, the long hunting tradition of the Faulkner family has now come full circle with my son. There is no doubt that I will have a diehard hunting partner to share time in the woods with for the rest of my life. On the downside, I might have to take out a second mortgage to pay for our taxidermy bill this year! Congratulations James on one heck of a season and thanks Dad for taking the time to introduce me to the outdoors all of those years ago. – Travis Faulkner
BBZ Special: As fathers, it’s hard sometimes for us not to bore our neighbors and friends to death with stories about our children. Sorry, but my son’s fall season makes me proud to be both a hunter and a dad.
