re: Weekend Results - how did everyone do?

so 9.5 point was sarcasm?

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o 9.5 point was sarcasm?

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yes... he had a small sticker on right side not quite an inch long...

looks good to me, he'll be fired up for a long time over that one

here's the story....

I am a fairly schooled skilled outdoors man. Have guided and run commercial operations. Trained dogs without professional help that have placed and won field trials.. both retriever and pointers...... of course being like kids.. my kid thinks I am clue less and he learned nothing from me...

Truth is, he has indeed learned an awful lot from a lot of the people around him - there were about 5 grownups he wanted to make sure knew about the buck yesterday - 3 are posters here. What blew me away through this process was watching him piece together a new area using snippets of what other people have taught him from things about patterning, perseverance and even just being still...

After hearing of the kid in livingston dying this week. He was pretty concerned about the stand we had just put up.... So... I put in a pretty long day on friday that ended just in time for us to get there before dark and check and re-secure the stand for the next morning... He decided to make a quick hunt that pm.... so he stayed in the stand... all kinds of commotion from a nearby camp... kinda ruined it or so he thought.. nothing was moving....

I was going to be about 250 yards away from him.. hoping for a shot on a pig - I really can't shoot a bow anymore.. and I feel cross bows are cheating...

He texted me as soon as he was in the stand... said there were 2 does and a spike there in the dark.. they ran off...

right at legal time.. shooter 1 we spotted was coming his way.... RIGHT AT HIM.... and there were 3 does...

didn't hear another peep... about the time I looked back in his direction .I saw the regal stag slipping through the woods on the trail I could see.. I only caught glimpses.. of him...but I knew he was heading right for my son...

from the humidity,sweat and mist... my text alerting him did not go through.

at exactly 7:08... I look to my right and there is my son on the trail heading to me doing the same fist pump he does when he retires a side in baseball or he is really mad.... and he is moving fast... I climb down take about ten steps... and the look on his face said it all....

I wasn't gonna say anything about the bigger buck heading his way... and he goes..

Dad.. I had 5 deer in range and the buck kept looking towards the right.. and staring... so I knew something else was coming... so I waited.. and then HE came.. the big 9... he stopped on the hump and turned his nose up... Made a perfect quartering away shot... I got him good....

we waited about 20 more minutes and went back...

VERY VERY little blood where he shot... he was getting bummed FAST... I kicked it into a mode that I rarely get into... and thought like a deer... went to the trail he took in... bam.. it was 30 yards from where he shot... BLOOD.. bright pink...

with a trail through briars.. over and through gullies...about 200 yards... everytime the trail died and found more blood.. son was dumbfounded that I found.. more blood.. sometimes just one drop... found one spot about 65 yards in.. with a lot of blood on ground pink blood and real rich red blood... my guess is deer originally layed down here but son got out of stand real quick after he shot.. perhaps buck got up again...

we meander around.. trail for the last 125 yards is pretty easy to follow.. terrain was not....
round a turn and there he is....... mist rising up off old man river... sunlight breaking through the trees... I saw it laying there and looked back to see my son's face just as he saw it and realized he was dead...

after the congratulations and such... he looks at me... HOW did you learn to track like that.....


He's been bow hunting pretty hard last two years... passed on several chances to kill deer with a bow... was pretty adamant he wanted his first deer with a bow to be a rack buck or a real mature doe....

For reasons I'll share later he has had a pretty impressive run recently in the out doors...

as a dad I couldn't be prouder.. and as any of you dads know.. this age is pretty rough on father son relationships..

I was really proud of him for realizing how much he learned in the out doors from the people he has been lucky enough to be around...

one thing the non hunters/fishers.. and especially the anti's will never grasp. is the life lessons.. and character lessons hunting and fishing teach and instill..

guy down the street stopped by when I was cleaning out the last ice chest... and asked how our weekend went..

I said our hunt lasted less than 30 minutes.. before I could finish.. he said Ha.. my son wanted out of the stand before we could see because of the mosquitoes too..

then I finished....

That'll be one told around the campfire for years to come. Congratulations. Love hearing stories like that.

Great story!! Can't wait for my son to get old enough. We need more OB fathers like yourself in this world today. Congrats

Great story. Congrats.

Fantastic story!

he did come clean and say last night it was a good thing he stayed 10 minutes so his legs could stop shaking and he could breathe enough to draw....

14 he is freshman now


and thanks...