There are many turning points in a young man’s life. One of them should be when he takes his first deer. This is the story of my third son’s first deer and the events on that fateful day.
It was a mediocre, but special day here in southeast Texas. Two months earlier, my son and I had put his rifle on layaway at a local gun store. This was the day we were going to pay the rifle off.
I wanted to teach my son a life lesson. That lesson was that we do not always get what we want right when we want it. One Saturday morning in September, I told my son, “Get in the truck, we were going to a gun store.” We drove 30 minutes to a nearby town and walked into the store.
Layaway
We started looking at rifles under the pretense that I was buying one for myself. A nice lady walked over and asked if we needed any help. I said “Sure, may I see that rifle?” The first one was a bolt action. I handed the rifle to my son and asked what he thought. He looked it over and handed it back.
After a few rifles were examined, I looked at my son and told him, “Pick a rifle, we are putting you one on layaway.” His eyes got as big as silver dollars. As excited as he may have been, he took his time. Even though we looked at various rifles, there was one he kept going back to, and that was a Marlin 336 lever action with a Nikon scope.
My other two sons had received a Marlin 336 from their grandparents. The lever action is a rifle every young man should own. To continue the tradition, my youngest son picked out his rifle and it was put on layaway.
Over the next two months on my payday, my son and I went to the gun store and paid on his rifle. Then the day…
