megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
SO proud of my 10 year old son today! He really stuck with it here in Mississippi the past 2 days in pouring rain and windy conditions. He was finally rewarded with his 2nd buck of his life. (Obviously, my 'first' best buck was his first buck, which he shot 3 years ago. He's passed up quite a few since then, but it finally all came together this afternoon on a deer he wanted to shoot.
We were hunting a friend's property in the Delta since Friday afternoon. EHD hit the property pretty hard summer before last, so the population is WAY down, and older bucks are few and far between at the moment. We've had rain and wind everyday since we arrived, which made for pretty miserable hunting conditions for a 10 y/o... but he stuck with it. He gave me till 10am every morning in the stand, and we were back at it 2pm each afternoon. He only napped once this morn for about 15 min (although he did play his new tablet a little more in the stands than I would have hoped for
As those of you with young children know, it takes both a LOT of time AND a LOT of luck for a young kid to connect. The farm we were hunting is well managed, and my friend allows me to take 1 buck each year. I was MORE than happy to let my son take my buck, so we were hunting locations where shot locations were a lot closer than I would have chosen. But here's where the luck came in... we were on the 4 wheeler headed to a box blind in the rain so I could keep him a bit dry during this afternoon's hunt. Right when I got to the spot I wanted to park the 4 wheeler, I saw a decent buck in the field opposite where where we were planning on hunting. he was about 200 yards away and feeding in a planted wheat field with a doe. He looked 3.5, maybe even 4.5, with a decent rack just to his ears. I guessed him just a touch over 120", but upon further inspection just didn't feel he had full enough hams to make 4.5. Regardless, I felt pretty certain I would have to cough up $350 for a shoulder mount if he connected. We were in the wide open, and I expected him to look up, see the 4wheeler, then dart off into the bordering CRP.... but he just kept feeding. Ethan looked him over with his binoculars and didn't take long to decide he wanted to shoot that buck.
'OK', I said, 'Lets go for him' (although I didn't think we had a snowball's chance in hell of actually getting set up on him. Rather than restarting the 4 wheeler and trying to move it, I opted to just leave it where it was on the road, and we bailed off the bike to the drainage ditch to the left to get a bit of cover. As Ethan put it, we played 'green light, red light' as we moved and paused each time the buck looked up then went back to feeding. We finally made the ditch and were well hidden before he spotted the 4 wheeler. He looked it over for a good 2 minutes before feeding again. We dropped down into the ditch, popped up on the other side, set up the .308 with bipod and rear bag, then he gave the 4 wheeler a good staredown for another 5 minutes. He put his head back down to feed and Ethan got into position and set up on the gun. I ranged him at 190 yards, dialed up just 1 MOA (for Mr. Big), and asked Ethan if he was solid on the deer. He said he was rock steady, so I gave him the go ahead to take off the safety and shoot high shoulder when he was ready. Safety 'click', then 'BOOM', 'THUD', and water droplets absolutely exploded off the front half of the deer as he dropped instantly. Bang-flop, DRT. Much yelling, screaming, high-fiveing, and saying a thankful prayer to God finally scared off the doe.
We got to him and Ethan was so excited. I was actually a bit surprised inside however by the total body ground shrinkage. Strangely enough, the buck was an extremely small framed deer. Jawbone confirmed 3.5, but this property usually produces bucks in the 180-225lb range for 3.5 y/o's. As a consequence, what looked like a 3.5 y/o 120"er with a 16" inside spread became a 3.5 y/o with a 14.5" inside spread and only scored 112". Since Ethan's first deer was 106" and we shoulder mounted it, I convinced him that I could do a European mount on this deer for something different for his wall (and save myself $350 in the process, especially since I just spent $250 on that stupid tablet for one of his Christmas presents )
We got him loaded on the 4 wheeler (which was a comedy in itself since the rear rack had a double rider seat), and got him back to the skinning rack. Ethan and I weighed him (only 155lbs live wt), and pulled the jawbone and collected antler data for DMAP. He then was more than helpful skinning, quartering, and removing the head. We headed out of the property soaking wet, but on cloud 9.
Such a blessing to have spent the past 2.5 days hunting with someone I love so much. Hope he ends up being a life long hunting buddy!
We were hunting a friend's property in the Delta since Friday afternoon. EHD hit the property pretty hard summer before last, so the population is WAY down, and older bucks are few and far between at the moment. We've had rain and wind everyday since we arrived, which made for pretty miserable hunting conditions for a 10 y/o... but he stuck with it. He gave me till 10am every morning in the stand, and we were back at it 2pm each afternoon. He only napped once this morn for about 15 min (although he did play his new tablet a little more in the stands than I would have hoped for
As those of you with young children know, it takes both a LOT of time AND a LOT of luck for a young kid to connect. The farm we were hunting is well managed, and my friend allows me to take 1 buck each year. I was MORE than happy to let my son take my buck, so we were hunting locations where shot locations were a lot closer than I would have chosen. But here's where the luck came in... we were on the 4 wheeler headed to a box blind in the rain so I could keep him a bit dry during this afternoon's hunt. Right when I got to the spot I wanted to park the 4 wheeler, I saw a decent buck in the field opposite where where we were planning on hunting. he was about 200 yards away and feeding in a planted wheat field with a doe. He looked 3.5, maybe even 4.5, with a decent rack just to his ears. I guessed him just a touch over 120", but upon further inspection just didn't feel he had full enough hams to make 4.5. Regardless, I felt pretty certain I would have to cough up $350 for a shoulder mount if he connected. We were in the wide open, and I expected him to look up, see the 4wheeler, then dart off into the bordering CRP.... but he just kept feeding. Ethan looked him over with his binoculars and didn't take long to decide he wanted to shoot that buck.
'OK', I said, 'Lets go for him' (although I didn't think we had a snowball's chance in hell of actually getting set up on him. Rather than restarting the 4 wheeler and trying to move it, I opted to just leave it where it was on the road, and we bailed off the bike to the drainage ditch to the left to get a bit of cover. As Ethan put it, we played 'green light, red light' as we moved and paused each time the buck looked up then went back to feeding. We finally made the ditch and were well hidden before he spotted the 4 wheeler. He looked it over for a good 2 minutes before feeding again. We dropped down into the ditch, popped up on the other side, set up the .308 with bipod and rear bag, then he gave the 4 wheeler a good staredown for another 5 minutes. He put his head back down to feed and Ethan got into position and set up on the gun. I ranged him at 190 yards, dialed up just 1 MOA (for Mr. Big), and asked Ethan if he was solid on the deer. He said he was rock steady, so I gave him the go ahead to take off the safety and shoot high shoulder when he was ready. Safety 'click', then 'BOOM', 'THUD', and water droplets absolutely exploded off the front half of the deer as he dropped instantly. Bang-flop, DRT. Much yelling, screaming, high-fiveing, and saying a thankful prayer to God finally scared off the doe.
We got to him and Ethan was so excited. I was actually a bit surprised inside however by the total body ground shrinkage. Strangely enough, the buck was an extremely small framed deer. Jawbone confirmed 3.5, but this property usually produces bucks in the 180-225lb range for 3.5 y/o's. As a consequence, what looked like a 3.5 y/o 120"er with a 16" inside spread became a 3.5 y/o with a 14.5" inside spread and only scored 112". Since Ethan's first deer was 106" and we shoulder mounted it, I convinced him that I could do a European mount on this deer for something different for his wall (and save myself $350 in the process, especially since I just spent $250 on that stupid tablet for one of his Christmas presents
)We got him loaded on the 4 wheeler (which was a comedy in itself since the rear rack had a double rider seat), and got him back to the skinning rack. Ethan and I weighed him (only 155lbs live wt), and pulled the jawbone and collected antler data for DMAP. He then was more than helpful skinning, quartering, and removing the head. We headed out of the property soaking wet, but on cloud 9.
Such a blessing to have spent the past 2.5 days hunting with someone I love so much. Hope he ends up being a life long hunting buddy!
Congrats to the kid! Sounds like you have made a hunting partner for life!
