10/26/2026
Sometimes a morning in the woods means more than you can put into words.
I took this buck on my place this morning with Daddy’s BAR .30-06—the first deer taken with that r***e since his last one more than 20 years ago.
Macular degeneration took Daddy’s hunting vision long before we lost him. It forced him to give up something he loved, and there was one morning that showed me just how much he missed it.
I had brought a buck by to show him. He rubbed his hands across the rack, feeling what his eyes could no longer make out, and said, “I sure do miss it.”
I’ve never forgotten those words. I could hear the hurt in his voice, and it hurt me knowing I couldn’t give that part of his life back to him.
Since Daddy passed away five and a half years ago, I’ve been trying to take a buck with his r***e. This morning, it finally happened.
Looking at that deer and Daddy’s gun, I thought about his hands on those antlers all those years ago. How I wish I could take this one by and sit with him a while.
That old r***e has another hunt to its story now. And I have a morning I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.
Daddy and I got him this morning.
What a blessing. - Donald Jarrett
