Pops, there is a deer on the iPad. These are the words spoken by Gunner during the Monday evening hunt that set my hunting companion, Kirk Musgrove, and I into action resulting in us harvesting our fifth girl deer on purpose. Kirk’s 5-year-old grandson has been in the deer stand many times with his Daddy, Kody, but his hunt was the first opportunity for Gunner, Pops and I to all three be sharing the stand together.

Doe One

Kirk and I were able to get to the Musgrove Family Ranch the opening weekend of the 2025 Kerr County, Texas whitetail deer season. Kirk’s son Kody, daughter-in-law Jennifer, 5-year-old grandson Gunner and 2-year-old grandson Greyson were also hunting the ranch. On Sunday evening, Kody shot a whitetail doe. When Kirk and I caught up with Kody’s entire family who all had been in the stand for the Sunday evening hunt, Gunner tells us, “Daddy shot a girl deer on purpose.”   

Doe Two

During the Monday evening hunt, Gunner joined Pops and I in the stand. About 90 minutes into the hunt, Pops tells Gunner that he can relieve himself out the door of the stand. Pops back is to the windows as he opens the door, when Gunner says, “there is a deer on the iPad.”

Kirk skeptically says, “really Gunner?”, while he turns back to face the windows, followed by, an excited “everybody sit back down”.

Pops talks me into shooting position like the prior successful hunts and we make a good shot. Unfortunately, the deer bolts and we cannot see it from the stand. We wait 30 minutes before Pops goes to track down the deer.

Gunner loses sight of Pops as he heads off to the right of the stand. It takes Pops a while to locate the deer because it was difficult to navigate through the heavy brush. In the meantime, a couple of deer move in from the left.

Gunner says, “Mr. Mike I can help you.”

I replied, “not this time Gunner, Pops is out in the trees…but some day you can.”

You can read the hunting page to learn about my limited success as an early childhood low vision hunter or check out all the hunting post to learn how I now hunt totally blind with the assistance from my hunting companions, Kirk and Gunner Musgrove.