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There are events that have stood out in my mind as training success'. I would like to share one with you that combines communication, hands on fighting skills, workouts, firearms training and hunting knowledge.
I was hunting with a friend, his son (my namesake) and my son a few years ago. My friend and his son shot a nice doe from an elevated position at a considerable distance. I reached them but did not see the exact point where she fell. I decided it would be best for me to go down where she was and let them talk me in on the radio rather than chance losing our point of reference as things look different once you go into the valley from the hilltop as we have learned from past hunts. I notified my son via radio who stated he would join them on the hilltop. As I was proceeding the area where she lay I heard on my radio an excited call of "Dad there's a buck running at you from the right" and there was a nice 160lb 8 point who began quartering away at about 80yds. I fired and dropped him with a good hit, from the 30-06 165gr sp, which was also called on the radio by my son (aka sniper/spotter team). As I approached my buck he was still wheezing and I slung my rifle across my back took an antler in one hand from his back position and took my knife in my other hand to dispatch him quickly as we hunters have a duty to do.
About this time he decided he wasn't done for and stood up and the fight was on. I held the antler for fear of being gorged by a frontal charge, as we circled I dropped the knife rolled back on my heels and drew my EDC concealed Glock from my serpa and fired one round into the pumpstation from the side hold CQC position. It thankfully had a devastating effect and dropped him without a quiver.
I heard on the radio "Uncle Matt that was the coolest thing I ever saw"! I later learned my son was running towards me as soon as the buck got up to save ole dad while those 2 stood on the hill and watched.
I immediately felt an ole friend I hadn't heard from in a while, called the adrenaline dump, coming and threw up. My son reached me seeing me shaken and went to work wordlessly on the deer and recovering the original doe while dad regained his composure before the other 2 reached us.
Everything played into that brief moment of excitement. I have been in other things much worse but this was one I feel I can share. All of my combined skills allowed me to walk away from that event with food and confidence in my equipment and those around me. There are failures in what happened too and those have been corrected as well with additionl thoughts, efforts and training.
My final thoughts are: train as you will fight, know your equipment, down is down and don't wait till something bad happens before working together.
I was hunting with a friend, his son (my namesake) and my son a few years ago. My friend and his son shot a nice doe from an elevated position at a considerable distance. I reached them but did not see the exact point where she fell. I decided it would be best for me to go down where she was and let them talk me in on the radio rather than chance losing our point of reference as things look different once you go into the valley from the hilltop as we have learned from past hunts. I notified my son via radio who stated he would join them on the hilltop. As I was proceeding the area where she lay I heard on my radio an excited call of "Dad there's a buck running at you from the right" and there was a nice 160lb 8 point who began quartering away at about 80yds. I fired and dropped him with a good hit, from the 30-06 165gr sp, which was also called on the radio by my son (aka sniper/spotter team). As I approached my buck he was still wheezing and I slung my rifle across my back took an antler in one hand from his back position and took my knife in my other hand to dispatch him quickly as we hunters have a duty to do.
About this time he decided he wasn't done for and stood up and the fight was on. I held the antler for fear of being gorged by a frontal charge, as we circled I dropped the knife rolled back on my heels and drew my EDC concealed Glock from my serpa and fired one round into the pumpstation from the side hold CQC position. It thankfully had a devastating effect and dropped him without a quiver.
I heard on the radio "Uncle Matt that was the coolest thing I ever saw"! I later learned my son was running towards me as soon as the buck got up to save ole dad while those 2 stood on the hill and watched.
I immediately felt an ole friend I hadn't heard from in a while, called the adrenaline dump, coming and threw up. My son reached me seeing me shaken and went to work wordlessly on the deer and recovering the original doe while dad regained his composure before the other 2 reached us.
Everything played into that brief moment of excitement. I have been in other things much worse but this was one I feel I can share. All of my combined skills allowed me to walk away from that event with food and confidence in my equipment and those around me. There are failures in what happened too and those have been corrected as well with additionl thoughts, efforts and training.
My final thoughts are: train as you will fight, know your equipment, down is down and don't wait till something bad happens before working together.
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