So tonight was my 3rd sit since Saturday's bow season opener. The wind wasn't exactly right, but needless to say a good sized doe walked under me at about 28 yds. As she was passingI gave quick brrrapppp, she stopped.....then twwwap. During thetextbook follow-through, Iwatched my arrow pass right through the vitals.

My first thought was to get my son so he could come and walk with me on his first tracking mission. He loves to walk in the woods with me. He's only two, but can identify moss, trees, birds, and most important deer. He speaks in phrases like....niiice deer, biiiiig treees, it's gettin daaark daaaady. It's an awesome feeling,and I really wan't to break him in early as far as introducing him to a downed deer, buck or doe. I wan't him to know andrespect where foodcomes from, and what happens whenwe hunt, and when an animal is killed.

So I got down from my tree, walked over to the arrow stuck in the ground and realized it would be an easy track job. This is my first year using mechanical broadheads...two blade rage to be exact. The result is total devastation(as most of you already know). I always was skeptical of any mechanical, but finallyfellvictim to the pressure...you know, all of those amazing photos of gaping entry and exit holes. I am totally sold on them.Blood was sprayed high in the bushes and on the trunks oftrees, andpieces of lung were hanging on limbs.....not bad ehh?

Slowly the idea of taking my two year old son to track this one, changed. For whatever reason I felt maybe he wasn't quite ready to see all of that blood and a huge hole in the side of a deer that in his mind is a nice animal that we look at every evening from the house, or out of the truck window. I couldn't explain to him the entire process in detail, he's just a little too young to understand yet.....or at least that's what I felt at the time.So I held back from getting him and retrieved the deer on my own.

So I guess my question is..... At what agehave you introduced "the blood factor" to your youngin? I know it's good to start-em at an early age, but there's no doubt a fine line. Some children might be more mature than others, some might not be able to handle it at all. I think two is definately too young. My boy has been to our gun club, and has seen 20 deer hanging on a pole, but hasn't had to witness yet the actual dressing, skinning, or blood. Now that I've had the feelings to actually take him on a tracking, I think maybe another year or two is definatelyin order.

What do you all think?