3 generations bring down bucks
VALENCIA — Sharon Weigle was shopping with her 11-year-old daughter Sara when the first call came in Monday morning.
“Got one,” said Dale Weigle, her 73-year-old father-in-law.
About 45 minutes later, her phone rang again.
“Got one,” said her husband, Dean.
Not long after that call, another came in.
“Got one,” said her son, 15-year-old Kevin.
In the span of a little more than an hour, three generations of the Weigle family bagged deer on their 30-acre farm in Valencia.
Not a bad first day of rifle deer hunting season.
“It’s unusual for us,” Dale said. “We go out every year, but we’ve never gotten three so close together.”
The trio were done before lunch.
Dean bagged an 8-point, Dale a 7-point and Kevin got a spike — just what he was looking for to conclude his days as a junior hunter.
Getting a deer with spike antlers to walk by at just the right time capped off an extraordinary day for the Weigle trio.
“I was waiting for a spike and it was just pure luck one came running with a group of does,” Kevin said. “My pap couldn’t believe it.”
For 10 years, the trio have trudged off to the blind on their property to hunt deer.
Only one other time did they all come back with a deer on the first day.
“Kevin has been pretty successful. He’s gotten one every year since he was 12,” Dean said.
In 2000, Dean harvested a 15-pointer.
The Weigles have seen more and more deer traffic on their property over the years because of the population and industrial boom in the Valencia area.
“It’s pushing all the deer toward us,” Dean said. “They have no where else to go.”
Kevin, who will turn 16 Friday, said it will be a morning he will never forget.
“To get three so quickly, I’ve never seen it or heard of it,” he said. “It was definitely pretty exciting.”
