First Buck

[NEWHunter]

Tried the blind last night and saw a couple. Tried a tree stand this morning for the first time. He was nervous at first but I assured him it would be OK. More to follow . . .

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats!!

 

[NEWHunter]

The alarm was set for two hours before shooting light. I got up and started prepping after my little guy wouldn’t wake up. Finally woke him up, got him dressed, and got a bowl of Cheerios in him. We were out the door with an hour and ten minutes until daylight.

Our spot for the day was a large vacant residential lot on the edge of a cornfield. The woods is rather open and deer mostly use the area as a travel corridor and generally at night. However, once November hits some bucks occasionally show up during daylight.

We made the turn on to the side street just under a mile from our parking spot. We got about three houses down and I noticed a buck in the ditch. I slowed and pointed him out to my son who got really excited to see a buck in our hunting area. As the buck crossed my bumper at 15 yards we could both clearly see he was a nice looking 10 pointer. Excitement was building.

We parked with an hour to spare, which was more time than I thought we needed. We took our time getting dressed and gathering all the gear - which is a lot when you’re trying to make do with what you have and what you have isn’t purpose built hunting gear for a nine year old. With everything ready, we then started our relatively easy couple hundred yard walk to the stand. On the way in we spotted a deer, and by a deer I mean the eyes. We made it to within about 25 yards before it bounded off relatively quietly.

One area I did spend money on was the safety harness and “fall guy.” A fall guy is basically a seat belt in a tree. It’s an ingenious device that I won’t let my kid climb a tree without. It’s a shame, but I don’t think they make them anymore.

I’ve hunted this spot many times before, but not in this particular double wide stand that my brother helped me hang a couple of years ago. It’s in the next tree over from my sticks and hang on I usually hunt. That meant I had to spend a fair bit of time placing some hangers, the fall guy, and hauling up gear while my little guy waited patiently below.

With everything set and my son clipped in I climbed up and clipped in and talked him through his first climb. He did great. I lowered the shooting rail and wrapped him up in a blanket and the 15 minute wait for daylight began.

I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to balance my son’s excitement and resulting desire to talk about everything that was going on. I also tried to teach him how to whisper and the importance of being quiet and sitting still. I mostly failed at all of that but I didn’t care, I was watching my little guy having a blast doing something I’ve been doing for over 30 years with my dad and something I hope to be doing with him for a long time.


Our view - 30 yards to the trail on our side of the bank.

Daylight finally arrived and we watched diligently for the first ten minutes. Then it was time to pull out his book and settle in. I pretty much kept my head on a swivel because unless the deer came through right in front of us, we would need as much time as possible to get set up.

About 25 minutes after daylight l looked over my left shoulder and did a double take as there was a deer about 45 yards away. I told my son and he quickly slide his book in to his muff as I had shown him earlier. My initial reaction was a buck based on the body, but I couldn’t see antlers. We watched a bit and it started coming our way. As it got to 30 yards I could see a couple of spikes and upon hearing it was a buck, the excitement level picked up considerably. I worked to get him in to a good position and help him with the crossbow. All the while we’re discussing whether we should try and make this his first buck, he keeps closing the distance.

At five yards my son decides he wants to wait for a different buck. The buck continues on for another 25 yards and I decided we’d have a little fun and learn about grunts and bleats. I did a sequence and the buck jumped the fence in to the adjacent cornfield and started coming back our way. We practiced getting in position again. See if you can spot the buck.



The buck continued on his way along the cornfield in his search for a doe. We talked about what happened for a couple of minutes - a great conversation seeing the encounter through the eyes of a nine year old. Just as we started to get settled in again I heard a noise.

I looked up and spotted another buck off to our left about 40 yards out. I could tell he definitely wasn’t a year and a half old, which meant there was no way he was getting a pass. I told my son we had to try and shoot him. As soon as he saw him, his eyes got big and he started to get in position. At this point I told him to use the first crosshair (25 yards).

By this time, the buck was just reaching the far edge of the shooting lane. I stopped the buck with a noise and he paused and snapped his head around. As soon as he paused the bolt was on its way. I heard the thwack and he was immediately going 90 mph.

I could still see the buck running hard at just over 100 yards before he disappeared. Seeing how healthy he looked put a sick feeling in my stomach. Then my son said, “Dad, I heard a crash.” Unfortunately I didn’t hear what he heard.

We then proceeded to make a bunch of phone calls to Mom and Grandpa and my brother. My son was anxious to get down and get after it so I had to explain the importance of patience. Also, I was very unsure if the hit was immediately fatal and I didn’t want my son to know exactly what was going on. So, after 10 minutes I left him clipped in and snuck down and investigated. I found this about 10 yards from the impact.



Back tracking I found blood within 5 yards of impact and decent hair at impact but no bolt. I immediately texted out the blood to a bunch of buddies. All confirmed my suspicion that I was looking at good lung blood. However, I was afraid the hit was high and only caught one lung - something I’ve seen before and don’t care to see again. I told my little guy he might just have gotten a hair cut and it would take some time to figure it out. I climbed back up, packed up, and had my son help me shuttle everything to the ground.

Then things got interesting. After 15 yards the buck crossed a property line I didn’t have permission for. Fortunately the property was only about 50 yards wide and I saw him run across that property and when I last saw him he was on a property I had permission for.

After giving him some more time we took up the track. The property he ran into is a very wide open forest with no place to hide a dead buck. And if he wasn’t on the property he would have run at least 300 yards from the point of impact. So we worked our way around the property looking for the buck. Nothing. At this point I started to really feel awful, all the while trying not to let on to my son that I was not feeling optimistic at this point.

It was time to hop the fence to see if maybe he had died in the one small ravine we couldn’t see. Nothing. At this point I put my head down and started looking. Almost immediately I found some good blood - but not a lot. I figured I was just about where I had last seen the deer. I spent a bit of time continuing on the direction of travel trying to find the next blood. Nothing.

So then I went back to last blood and started walking a circle. Then hope. A couple feet and 90 degrees from the last blood I found - more blood. Ten more steps and I looked up.



He had died in the only little depression on that whole place. We’d walked by him twice at 15ish yards. If he would have died 2 feet in any other direction we would have spotted him almost immediately.

The celebration began. “Best day ever” my son said. My brother showed up to assist with the haul - which is especially helpful when you had an MRI on your back less than a week ago; and he convinced grandpa and grandma that they needed to pay for the first shoulder mount!

Upon closer inspection, the 10 pointer in front of us was the same buck we had seen in the headlights an hour before daylight. He covered at least 3/4 of a mile to get back within 25 yards. My son had said, “wouldn’t it be neat if we could get that guy?” It sure was.






The cavalry returns.

 

[MITCHMO]

Dang!!!

 

[Idahoarcheryhunter]

Nice! Congrats!

 

[Thegreatwapiti]

Leaving for Minnesota on Wednesday with my 12 year old! Got his first doe last year. Hoping for something bigger this season. Congrats to you and your boy. Super special!!

 

[Stocker]

Nice work fellas!

 

[FlatlanderAZ]

Quite a buck for his first (or fiftieth)! Great day for everyone!

 

[CouesKelly]

Great first Buck! Congrats to you both.

 

[Wallydeuce]

Well done kid! You too pops.

 

[Northwoods]

That’s a dandy!

 

[Pahoundsman]

That’s a great buck! Congratulations to both of you.

 

[rtraverdavis]

That’s really cool. Congratulations to your boy.

 

[Eventually]

Awesome!! Congrats

 

[Four22]

Heck of a first deer! Well done!

 

[MuleyMB]

Very cool !! Congrats

 

[Willy Dee]

Congrats!

 

[BradA]

Dang nice buck! Congratulations!

 

[Adam in Ohio]

What a great deer! Congratulations to you both!

 

[kansasdad]

#whenthedeerweighs3timesthehunter

Congratulations