When Beau Hammon and his oldest son Preston arrived home about 10 p.m. on Labor Day, his youngest son was lying on the sofa, barely awake. Had they entered the house a few minutes later, 12-year-old Braxton would’ve been in bed.
Job No. 1 was to console the kid who had to spend the afternoon at football practice instead of hunting.
“My wife, Michelle, wouldn’t tell Braxton his brother had shot the deer he’d seen the previous afternoon. That was up to me,” Beau said.
“So I went up to him and said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news.’”
The good was that he and Braxton would have dibs on any buck encountered for the rest of the 2020 season. The bad news: one buck was off the table.
“Without waiting for me to explain, Braxton said, ‘I know. Preston shot the deer,’” Beau said.
“He was disappointed, I’m sure. But he was really gracious about it. More gracious than most would be in this situation,” Beau continued. “He really loves his brother.”
The day before Preston notched his buck tag, Braxton passed up a 200-yard shot at the same monstrous whitetail because he could see only the top of its back above the green soybeans. The whitetail was feeding away from them, too, so there was little hope circumstances would change.
The call was Braxton’s, and he refused to take the iffy shot.
Football practice is the only reason the 12-year-old didn’t return to the bean field on Sept. 7. Fourteen-year-old Preston, however, was ready, willing and able. His soccer coach had cancelled practice because of the holiday.
Monday was the third day of the state’s youth season, during which orange-clad teenagers 16 and under may hunt deer with a rifle as long as they’re accompanied by an adult. The regular rifle season doesn’t come in until December.
Beau and Preston reached the private farm in southeastern Kansas about 4:30 that 93-degree afternoon. They rarely hunt in the mornings.
Father and son carried one Double Bull blind chair and a Caldwell tripod to some hay bales beside unharvested soybeans. Beau planned to lean against the bale so he could better see the entire field.
Preston was armed with his late grandfather’s flat-shooting .270 instead of the usual .243 he and Braxton share. He and his father had shot 12 rounds through it earlier in the day to check the scope’s zero.
They spotted the buck 200 yards away at 7:30. It had bedded on a hillside overlooking a creek, and twilight’s approach had apparently signaled dinnertime.
Preston took the shot when it had closed to 137 yards, after they’d watched the animal for almost 25 minutes. Had the 195 5/8-inch (rough-scored) deer come out 10 to 15 minutes later than it did, it might still be alive.
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