By Keith Whitcomb Jr. keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com
CLARENDON — After passing his hunter safety course in September, Mason Goad, 11, was ready for his first deer hunt at the start of the 2019 youth deer weekend.
With the help of his uncle, he shot his first buck Nov. 9. It had six antler points and weighed 130 pounds after being field dressed.
“We woke up in the morning around 4:27, I believe,” Mason said Friday, “Then we had breakfast, then we got in a car and drove down somebody’s driveway. We walked down to the hunting spot. We got in the ground blind. We were in there for a while. We didn’t hear anything, but somebody drove their car off while we were hunting. We got pretty cold so we went down to McDonald’s for food and hot cocoa, then we went to another spot.”
His uncle, Blaine Goad Jr., took him to hunt in Castleton, Mason said.
“First we went around the place and didn’t see anything. Then we went back to the car, and we went to a spot where we could wait. Then we went by a tree and used the grunt call,” he said. “It came in a few minutes later. The first time I shot at it I missed.”
The deer moved 10 yards and stopped, giving his uncle time to offer some advice on how Mason could shift his stance and shoot better. Mason said he chambered another bullet and fired a second time.
“He went another 20 or 30 yards and dropped,” said Mason.
His aunt, uncle and grandparents helped him drag the deer from the woods and take it to a nearby weigh station.
“I didn’t know what was going through my mind,” Mason said. “I was excited. I thought it was a good old deer.”
The deer carcass is still at the butcher shop, he said, and he’s having the head mounted. Mason said he has never eaten deer meat and is excited to try it.
Mason attends Christ the King School in Rutland. Only one of his classmates hunts. Mason said he plans to go hunting during the regular rifle season, which opens Today, but he’ll likely hunt in a different spot. Someday he wants to hunt turkey and coyotes.
His hunter safety course, he said, was challenging, but it taught him the importance of muzzle control and overall gun safety.
As for the hunting itself, Mason’s technique is simple, but effective.
“Be quiet. Really quiet,” he said. “I sort of tell myself to be quiet. I get all these itches and everything, so I guess that’s a problem. It’s hard.”
He’s developed at least one trick for shutting down sneezes.
“There’s a trick I learned — you put your fingers somewhere along your nose, and it stops a sneeze,” he said. “I tried it and it did work.”
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