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GRANT: Without the tremendous sacrifice – even the ultimate sacrifice from many, sacrifices their families and jobs and time; of these men and women that have fought to give us the freedoms we celebrate here in American, there wouldn’t be hunting. We don’t have hunting in any other nation in the world as free and as open to all citizens as there is right here in the United States. And in a huge part, that’s due to our veterans.

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GRANT: Adam and Brian started off the week hunting here at The Proving Grounds. Had some pretty tough hunts with only a couple of deer observations and enough time in a tree doing that, they decided to pack up the truck and head about an hour northeast to Adam’s family farm.

ADAM: 3:30. Halloween afternoon. We’re getting ready to hunt. We’ve got ScentMaster and everything loaded up, so here we go. We’re excited. Land of the scrubs.

ADAM: (Whispering) Testing 1-2. Got me? It’s October the 31st. Halloween night. Probably one of my favorite times to hunt, deer hunt all year.

ADAM: (Whispering) Are you rolling? Okay. Can you film that way at all? (Inaudible) My gosh. Got her? (Shot) (Whispering) Golly, man. I was worried about those limbs and I think I was just trying to – this. Yeah. Next time we won’t let that happen.

GRANT: This past weekend was the youth season here in Missouri and I had the great opportunity and privilege to take both my daughters, Raleigh and Rae hunting. Rae is 10 years old and Raleigh is 14 and they’ve hunted with me for years, but we didn’t start out hunting per se. Turns out, kids or even adults that are introduced to the outdoors through fishing for pan fish with bobbers or catching snowflakes on their tongue or enjoying all the things the outdoors have, learn to enjoy hunting more than those that are just introduced to hunting from the get-go. That afternoon Raleigh joined me in the same Redneck blind and we had a great opportunity; had a yearling buck, but Raleigh chose to pass.

GRANT: (Whispering) You need to get your gun up if you’re going to think about it.

GRANT: Raleigh’s never tagged a buck, so I wanted her to get one under the belt, but she really was solid on passing that deer, knowing she had more time to hunt. The next morning, early on, a yearling buck came from my hard left out of view of Raleigh and I couldn’t get the camera around to it conveniently. He hit a scrape just out of easy view of the camera and then moved on into Raleigh’s view; started working up the edge of the field. This buck gave Raleigh ample time and angles to make the shot and I, in fact, was encouraging her because we’d already passed up a buck and it’s the last day of youth season in Missouri. Once again, Raleigh was steadfast in her conviction to wait for a two-year old or older buck and we watched this buck pass out of view. I was starting to question her conviction, and about 20 minutes later, I looked out that same side window and saw a nice two-year old buck working that same scrape. I whispered to Raleigh, “Raleigh, here’s a buck that you will shoot.” She believed me and started getting her gun ready as I moved the camera over to catch this buck as it came into our view.

GRANT: (Whispering) Do you see him? Don’t move. Okay. Lift it (inaudible). Put it right behind the shoulder when you’re ready. Just whenever you’re ready.

RALEIGH: (Whispering) So I can fire?

GRANT: (Whispering) (Inaudible) Honey. Put your safety off. (Shot) You got him. You got him. Do you feel good about your shot?

RALEIGH: Ah-huh. I had to wait until he passed the utilization cage.

GRANT: Were you right behind the shoulder?

RALEIGH: Ah-huh.

GRANT: Maybe I wasn’t paying as much attention as I thought I was in the viewfinder, but the buck didn’t show any signs of being hit as I watched him run into the woodline. And then I asked her, “How’d you feel about the shot.” She said, “Dad, it was exactly where you told me to aim.”

GRANT: (Whispering) I always trust your judgment, Raleigh. As I’m fiddling around with the camera, I look up and see a buck that looks almost like the one Raleigh just shot enter into the field about 100 yards away. And that time, my heart hit my toes.

RALEIGH: There was two with antlers out there.

GRANT: (Whispering) Goodness gracious.

GRANT: Over the next 20 minutes Raleigh and I had the great privilege of watching three bucks at least two years old and probably older, circling the field, checking some does, coming in and out of view; sun shining down on them. It was a site that couldn’t be any prettier. Raleigh and I were both sitting back and enjoying it, but I gotta tell you, I’m still wondering: “Should I have her shoot again? Is one of those bucks out there the one Raleigh just missed?” Most of you don’t know my daughter, but Raleigh’s a very serious young lady and when she told me the third time, “Dad, the shot was good,” I gave up worrying anymore.

RALEIGH: So, he was right past the utilization cage, so somewhere right in here. Is this about right?

GRANT: Yup.

RALEIGH: So, here’s a footprint.

GRANT: I didn’t see any blood myself, but I could clearly see the trail the buck had walked right behind the utilization cage as it had knocked the dew off the brassicas.

RALEIGH: Right here.

GRANT: Oh yeah. A lot of blood. Good eye.

RALEIGH: He, he went…

GRANT: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There he, Raleigh, look right there in the creek.

RALEIGH: Oh.

GRANT: Give it to me, girl. That’s a good one. Look at that. Let’s go check out your buck. Shoot, it didn’t run 50 yards, Raleigh. Yeah. That’s a beautiful shot. Perfect shot. Big buck, Raleigh. Good job. How many points it have?

RALEIGH: It’s an eight-pointer.

GRANT: Ah-huh. Perfect shot. Perfect shot placement. Look at that. Perfect shot placement. You made short work of that. Well, let’s go call your mama. See what you hit, so we can get some good pictures before the sun gets too bright. Want to?

GRANT: Phone calls to Tracy and the grandparents and all that stuff are part of harvesting deer here at The Proving Grounds.

GRANT: Now, stick his tongue in his mouth.

RAE: (Laughter) Okay.

RALEIGH: This way?

TRACY: Yeah, that way.

GRANT: Tracy’s a good photographer so she took the time to set up some great shots that I’m sure my family will share long after all that venison has left our freezer. Sharing such hunts as Raleigh and I had, to me, is the soul of hunting. I gotta tell you the elation I felt with Raleigh harvesting that two-year old buck is probably larger than the very mature buck I just harvested out in Kansas a few weeks ago.

GRANT: I asked the engineers at Winchester, “What’s the best .223 round for my daughters to use?” Because I really wanted them to have success. They pointed me to the Power Max Bonded .223 round. The Bonded is literally bonded together so it will maintain all its weight as it goes through objects. On the deer Raleigh shot, the round happened to go in between two ribs; totally annihilated the lower lung cavity on the right side; took out the top of the heart; disintegrated the lung on the left side. I’ve been so impressed with that .223 Power Max round, I may hunt with it this year myself.

GRANT: This Reconyx camera is one of the reasons the girls had great hunts this weekend. This camera has been in place since September and it has taken over 7,000 pictures mainly because we’re using the time lapse feature so I can see movement throughout the large food plot. I’m as tight as any guy out there. I don’t want to waste any money. And I’ve kind of been playing around and I’ve tried these Energizer Lithium batteries – 99% battery capacity and these batteries have been in here since September. That’s a great value.

GRANT: I hope you get out and enjoy some rut hunting activity this week. If you do, take a moment to look around at the great diversity of Creation and think about The Creator who gave it all to us. Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv.