A Boy, His Beloved Grandpa, and Their Touching Tale of Two Deer

It was Parker's first time hunting with his 'Poppop' - and it turned out to be a day neither will soon forget.

A mentor shares a special kind of bond with you when it comes to hunting. And if that mentor happens to be your grandpa, the relationship means all that much more. We've all had someone introduce us to hunting. For 13-year-old Parker, it was his beloved Poppop.

Parker's father, Bryan Allain, doesn't come from a hunting background, but his wife's side of the family do. Living in Pennsylvania, and only ten minutes away from the in-laws, it was only inevitable that Poppop, 61-year-old Dan Fisher, would become Parker's tutor.

Parker and Poppop hunted for the first time together on October 31, 2016. They had plans to head into the woods prior to that Halloween, but it wasn't to be.

"We were supposed to hunt together earlier in the season, but Poppop was hospitalized in early September with what they thought was pneumonia. Turned out that he needed a heart valve repaired or replaced. He went under the knife to have his mitral valve repaired that month, so was unable to accompany me on my first two deer hunts."

Poppop's neighbor Tim took Parker out those first two times, but the teen never had an opportunity to pull back his bow string on a buck or doe. And maybe that's a good thing, because on that first sit ever with Poppop on the morning of Halloween, Parker ended up with a definite pair of 'treats.'

"We got out there before sunrise while it was still dark.  It was probably two or three hours before we saw the first deer. It was a doe and we both noticed it at the same time. There were three actually, and I was about to pick out one to focus on but then a fourth doe came along and I waited until I had a good clean shot from about 20 yards. I drew my bow and had to wait about a minute for the perfect angle and then I hit it. We were waiting a bit before we were going to go find the doe, maybe 30 minutes, and all of a sudden a buck came along. We saw it in the distance and didn't know if it would come up and eat the corn near us. My Poppop asked me if I wanted to shoot it, and I said yes, so we watched it keep coming in. As it started to get closer I drew my bow. I think it heard me because it froze, giving me a great angle at it, and I got it with a perfect shot from about 15 yards. That was how I harvested two deer on the same day."

The bond between a grandpa and child is a special one. Just ask Parker:

"It's fun to have something that he can teach me about and that we can do together."

Awesome job on the double deer harvest, Parker. And a tip of the Wide Open Spaces hat to you, Poppop - for being the kind of mentor only a loving grandpa can be.

Photos courtesy of Bryan Allain.