I made it a priority this year to take a kid hunting with a crossbow and man did it work out wonderfully last weekend. The young man is 13 and we practiced with my Horton 175 for a few weeks. He became very comfortable and excited about the crossbow. I took him out to a local honey hole of mine and we saw over 50 deer. He passed all in the morning waiting for a buck. At 6pm on opening day he took his first deer. A 6pt buck that weighed 115lbs. Great shot, the buck ran maybe 30 yards. He is now saving his money for his own crossbow and is very excited to take out some does with me at some other sites I have. With my 12 year old and this young man being friends, I think the doe population is in trouble and I will have to buy another freezer. Here's to a great opening and I didn't even hunt.

Mike

sucks when you gotta buy another freezer, huh??

He is hooked for life, and having a friend like your son will make them be the best of pals, just make sure they don't skip too much school to go hunting like i did

Great job in passing on the hunting tradition. Buckeyefootball

Hats off to you for spending your time with him. I was a "big brother " to a younster several years ago before I had kids of my own. We did a lot of hunting together. Turned out to be one of the best things I ever done for someone. He now enjoys taking my son hunting when I am not available or off hunting myself.

Haha, I'm skipping tomorow.

tell the young man congrats on his Buck. Kudo's to you fer the great thing of teaching & taking time to do that

Good job looks like you did your teaching real well! Tell the young man congrats! P.S. i got plenty of room in the freezer if you need the extra space!!! LOL

Hey Va.Mike, that was a really nice thing you did. I am 47 years old now, but when I was a youngster I wanted to hunt so badly and my Father was a scratch golfer who did not like to get his hands dirty. We had moved to Va. and did not have any family near by. I made friends with a guy whose dad hunted and we would go out and sight in their guns and look for deer sign and hang some stands, but my friends father would never take me to go hunting. My friend ended up a pilot for American Airlines and he does not hunt to this day! It took me a while to learn on my own, but now I hunt with the best of them. If I had met someone like yourself I would have been able to learn so much more quickly and not the "hard way". Anyways, I am sure that young man really appreciates what you did and will remember that the rest of his life. Way to go......Hope you get the big one this year.

Congrats to you both