Buckeye Mike

My 12 year old took his first deer this Saturday. The story is a little long but I will tell it anyway. First, he was using a friends 45 ML with a lead conical sitting of 80 grains of fff. I have a 50 but we thought the 45 would be a little more friendly for him (in addition to less recoil it is a little smaller and fits him better). He was out with my 16 year old a couple of weeks ago for youth season but nothing came within range. This Saturday, his older brother could not go so the 12 year old (Ross) and I went out with my friend (Knox County Ohio). We were hunting a ground blind on the edge of a 100 acre field. We got seated around 6:30 and two deer came by almost immediately but it was too dark to shoot. It was pretty cold in the morning (around 23 when we got started) and he was having trouble keeping his feet and hands warm but he hung in there. Then around 8:15 I see a nice set of antlers peeking up over a little rise and a nice 8 point starts toward us. Unfortunately he didn't have is gun ready and he couldn't get it up quick enough with the buck coming right at us. Eventually, it passed about 15 yards to our right without a shot being fired (at one point I even told him to just hand me the gun and I would shoot it). He was pretty down after that. Then around 9:00 two does walk into range off to our right (at that time he was putting on another pair of socks). He did manage to get a shot off (ended up falling over backward on top of me) and thought he hit the second deer but after looking for a while we couldn't find a blood trail. We had to leave by noon and I told him that we would stay for another hour or so and then we would need to pack up and head for home. Not much happened (we did see a couple of babies) and at 10:30 I told him we needed to leave in 10 or 15 minutes if nothing was happening. Within about 5 minutes he says "look at them dad they look like a flock of birds." I look to the right and there are 15 deer on the dead run coming straight at us about 1/4 mile away. I told him to get ready and hold still. The deer went into a little depression and we lost sight of them for a minute or two (I was afreid they would just follow the contor of the land and head into the woods to our left without our ever getting another look). Then they crest the hill a little over 100 yards out. They stopped and looked right at us (wind was pretty strong in our face so I knew they couldn't smell us) and then looked back where they came. They then trotted a few yards toward us and turned to face the woods to our left. I told him to shoot when he was ready and he did pretty quickly. The whole heard bolted to the left toward where my friend was sitting. Ross said he hit the lead doe right behind the shoulder but I was not convinced given his earlier miss. My friend came up and assumed he missed again because he said they all seemed to be moving pretty good when they passed him. Then we found a blood trail (lots of it) and found the doe about 100 yards away down the hill. He hit her right where he said and took out both lungs without a pass through (we found the slug stuck in the ribs).

They weighed her at the check station and she went 175lb. They called everyone over as it was the biggest doe of the season. Needless to say I had one excited little boy! Now maybe we can get one for his big brother during ML season.

Also, I forgot to say this earlier but I stepped it off and he hit the deer with a perfect shot at 76 paces. I couldn't have done it any better.

gelarson

Congratulations to your son. Just a word to the wise, I have a buddy that used to put a lot of presure on his son when hunting and his son stopped hunting when he was in his late teens. Told me he felt he was a failure if he screwed up on a shot or a stalk etc.

Make hunting fun for your boys and treat that doe like the biggest trophy in the world, complete with pictures. When he messes up (like I still do on occasion) make him see the humour in it.

Again congratulations on having two more hunters in the family.

Eric

Buckeye Mike

Eric:

Thanks for the advice. Actually, we had a great time with the entire experience and I try to make it fun for the boys. He has been turkey hunting a couple of times with not luck and he commented to me on Suncday that it is a lot more fun to go out when you get something and he can't wait for turkey season (he even wanted to go deer hunting again this year but I told him that we needed to try and focus on his brother the rest of this year). Hopefully, both boys will pick it up as a lifetime pursuit.

cayugad

Congratulations to your son.... that is a great shot he made.

ccicora

Thats awsome! congrates to you and your boy. Another life long hunter is born....