Late start to the morning...the young hunter I am mentoring arrived 25 minutes late to my driveway. As we get to the hunting grounds, I made a late-game call to have him leave his climber since we were chasing the sunrise at 10 minutes after6 as we headed in.

Instead of hunting two different woodlots roughly 150 yards apart, I have him sit in the stand I was planning on, and I sit in what is typically my opening day shotgun stand. It's a real open stand in the center of the woodlot, which is only 20 acres in size. I wasn't happy about it since I knew shooting a bowwould be tough. Anyway, I send him up his stand, which is only 60 yards away from my standat my 7 o'clock position off a small wheeler trail. When I turn sideways, I can see him in his stand. I wasn't fond of it, but that was our only option at this time.

The wind was perfect for us though.

7:30 I notice a monstrous four point that I've seen up close and personal 3 or 4 times this season. After considerable thought, I've concluded this deer is a 3.5 yr old. He's perfectly set up for a shot...with my shotgun that is, 60 yards directly in front of me. He beds down and I lock eyes on a doe that beds down within twenty yards of me, with an open view of myself. She forces me to enjoy one of those long periods of time where you can't breathe wrong or she'll notice.

I hear steps a few minutes later, and after managing a slight move of my head, I spy a small yearling doe behind me. I decide to pass as I've already got my doe, plus she is in between me and my protege (so-to-speak). I made the right choice as I watch her work her way through to him. He stood up, drew like he knew what he was doing, and shot. I couldn't see the impact, but it sounded as if he hit branches before hand.

At that moment the doe bedded by me got up, and moved. Two more bucks joined in. A spike and a basket rack 8, or so I thought. After a bit of walking amongst each other, the bucks seperated a bit, and the basket rack buck comes into my open area in front of me. I was forced to move if I wanted to shoot, and luckily my timing was good, as I managed to stand up and draw in one motion as the buck was behind a very small tree. The doe was also hidden from my view, thankfully.

I thought this buck was going to close the gap, but he decided to follow after the doe, and walked across my lane at 25 yards, and jumped a partially downed limb. As soon as he hit the ground, I had to shoot. He stopped for a split second, and I released with a strong confidence for a 30 yard shot, which is out of my norm. I typically am a strong proponent of 25 and under. However, most of my stands rarely get a wide-open pie plate to hit at 30 yards, and I do it all summer.

My shot was tv-worthy, slamming into him in the money hole, broadside with a very slight quartering away. Arrow jams in, and he takes off. I got down a half hour later to get the kid. He couldn't see the results of the his shot, but as I hit the trail to his stand I was met with absolutely massive blood signs. I laughed because I was happy since we both got deer on the same morning only 1/2 hr apart, and only 60 yards apart. It would be his first deer ever.

As he meets me, he looks over, and spots his doe. She promptly got up and walked away. She was clearly hurting, tail down, and couldn't outrun a snail at her fastest pace. I back him out, and we head in the opposite direction to find my buck. He wasn't hard to find.

Both lungs and a pass thru in the heart to the opposite shoulder did quick work, although he went sixty yards spraying blood like a fountain. As I got closer, he had split brow tines, and ended up with 11 scorable points. I must say it is the smallest one ever...

Now, here's the down part. We couldn't find the protege's doe. She bled equally as much as my buck did at half the body weight. I couldn't believe it, we had great sign and she closed up. I'm completely positive this deer is down, and we can't find her. We spent all day with 6 people looking for this doe, with no luck. He is so frustrated, and sad at the same time. She took a hedge row and she stepped out into a just cut corn field, with ruts you could lay down and be hidden in. Not fun....

I'm heading out early a.m. to look for it againbefore much of the rain hits. I was more excited to see him get his doe than I was for my buck, and it really dampened my day. Anyway long story ends with pics...

Protege with buck:


Me with buck:


Close-up of rack points...odd rack overall.