Rjack
Well-Known Member
My 11 year old son, Dakota, took his first antlered buck the evening of 9-30-2006. As you can see, he started with a nice one!
Dakota and I headed out around 4 and were on stand about 5. We saw absolutely nothing the entire evening. I even suggested we might get down and move to an open field, but Dakota said "let’s stay here because the big bucks travel in the timber". The wind had been howling all evening straight out of the west, but it calmed around 6:30.
Dakota saw this guy crossing to our east around 7pm. I was turned the other way watching behind us, so only saw a big body fade into a thicket after hearing Dakota say "big buck".
Dakota was about sick that he didn't get a shot. Said the deer was "HUGE" and wanted to climb down and go after him. After some discussion we decided to sit tight since it was dead calm and quite dry. I hit the rattle bag lightly a few times. On the 3rd try I saw a deer walking towards us (from where we last saw him). I didn't see the rack until he came in the open. I gave a bleat to stop him and Dakota took the shot with his youth Rossi 50 caliber muzzleloader. The shot was about 35 yards. The buck was quickly out of sight and I did not hear him go down. I had some concern as the buck was slightly quartering towards us. About had to tie Dakota in the stand to keep him from getting down and going after him. We reloaded, had a candy bar, and got down around 7:25.
No blood or hair at the spot of the shot, but it was quite dark by this point. I followed the path the buck had taken and kept circling trying to find blood. Dakota stayed where the buck was standing and finally decided to come over to me. He walked up, shined his light down, and said "there’s blood". Guess he can teach Dad a few things about trailing. Dark red blood indicated it may have been a liver hit. We discussed backing out, but the trail was getting better and headed for the field edge. The buck never made it that far. We found him about 125 yards from where he was hit. The celebration was great! The 180 grain bullet pushed by 90 grains of Pyrodex had destroyed the liver and lodged under the skin on the far side.
My rough scoring came up with 159 gross typical with 5 inches of side-to-side deductions and 3 inches more for that wicked split brow for a final tally of 151 typical. Looks like I better find a little more space to hang this one on the wall!
Home picture
Field photo
Dakota and I headed out around 4 and were on stand about 5. We saw absolutely nothing the entire evening. I even suggested we might get down and move to an open field, but Dakota said "let’s stay here because the big bucks travel in the timber". The wind had been howling all evening straight out of the west, but it calmed around 6:30.
Dakota saw this guy crossing to our east around 7pm. I was turned the other way watching behind us, so only saw a big body fade into a thicket after hearing Dakota say "big buck".
Dakota was about sick that he didn't get a shot. Said the deer was "HUGE" and wanted to climb down and go after him. After some discussion we decided to sit tight since it was dead calm and quite dry. I hit the rattle bag lightly a few times. On the 3rd try I saw a deer walking towards us (from where we last saw him). I didn't see the rack until he came in the open. I gave a bleat to stop him and Dakota took the shot with his youth Rossi 50 caliber muzzleloader. The shot was about 35 yards. The buck was quickly out of sight and I did not hear him go down. I had some concern as the buck was slightly quartering towards us. About had to tie Dakota in the stand to keep him from getting down and going after him. We reloaded, had a candy bar, and got down around 7:25.
No blood or hair at the spot of the shot, but it was quite dark by this point. I followed the path the buck had taken and kept circling trying to find blood. Dakota stayed where the buck was standing and finally decided to come over to me. He walked up, shined his light down, and said "there’s blood". Guess he can teach Dad a few things about trailing. Dark red blood indicated it may have been a liver hit. We discussed backing out, but the trail was getting better and headed for the field edge. The buck never made it that far. We found him about 125 yards from where he was hit. The celebration was great! The 180 grain bullet pushed by 90 grains of Pyrodex had destroyed the liver and lodged under the skin on the far side.
My rough scoring came up with 159 gross typical with 5 inches of side-to-side deductions and 3 inches more for that wicked split brow for a final tally of 151 typical. Looks like I better find a little more space to hang this one on the wall!
Home picture
Field photo
