Sunday morning: It was sixty-two degrees when Casey & I were hiking to one of our 2 man stands. On the stand the mosquitoes were a bit bothersome and I could see Casey wasn’t enjoy it. At one point he asked me to fire up the Thermocell but I told him if we did that we could kiss any deer goodbye. Ten minutes later I could see that he wasn’t enjoying the stand like he should be so I gave in and popped on the Thermocell thinking “well so much for the deer but maybe we’ll see a hog”. In about five minutes life was better in the stand with the mosquitoes leaving us alone. Thirty minutes later Casey was distracted watching 4 squirrels chasing each other around when I tapped him on the shoulder to let him know a deer was coming in.
It was a small deer but we were happy to see it. With the gun up I could see Casey was shaking pretty bad with “buck fever” so I told him to take his finger off the trigger and to take some deep breaths. That didn’t help a lot and as he got back on the gun he was still shaking. He continued to try working through the shaking but he didn’t want to shoot even though he had a couple of chances at great broadside shots. I again told him to take a couple of breaths and he gained some composure. I reminded him to “aim small miss small” and by now the deer is getting edgy and is focusing in our direction. As the deer is walking Casey had to move the gun to intercept her in the next opening and the deer is getting to the point where she’s just about got us pegged but still not quite certain. I whispered to Casey he’s got to make it happen. At this point the deer is lowering her head and quickly raising it up looking at us and she’s just about to bolt when Casey shoots and the deer kicks her back legs up, takes off, crashes through the brush, and then silence.
Still in the stand we talk about what happened and where he thinks the shot went. He’s pretty elated as he states that he was holding right behind the shoulder and that the shot surprised him (as he was taught). We then talked about “buck fever” and how to work through it. That was the first time for me to watch someone so excited that they just shake (although I did that some 38 yrs ago when I got my first deer with a bow)!! With that we climbed down to inspect the spot where the deer was standing. There was no problem finding blood as it was pretty apparent along with what looked to be lung material. We discussed leaving the deer alone for 30 minutes and we hiked the ½ mile back to the truck.
Once we got back to the area it was his job to track the deer and methodically work the blood trail as I followed behind offering hints and advice along the way. Thirty yards into the trail he found his deer piled up as it was running full tilt. A great behind the shoulder shot that took out both lungs. Wahoo!!
A team effort
12 year old Casey with his 2nd deer
A pretty pleased boy
It doesn’t get much better than this!!
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
Button buck?
