Mason's buck vid

Boarhead said:

That was great.Good thing you had him strapped in and a rail around the stand I believe he would have jumped off he was so jacked up.

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brock ratcliff said:

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Mason and I had a pretty good day. We rolled over to the Ross Co property this morning. We busted a deer out on our way into the woods...there is always a deer there, under our darn stand! I shined the light towards it, never did see it, but heard it stop running. Good enough for me. We climbed up and settled in. As light just began to filter into the woods I heard a deer coming up the ridge to the south of us. Shortly, I could make out the outline of what appeared to be a heck of a big deer standing on a logging road 25 yards or so in front of us. It was still too dark to make out what it was for sure, but it was BIG in appearance. It wandered off.
About 715 we heard a loud racket to the north side of our stand which is where the lone deer we spooked upon entry was last heard. Shortly, a doe popped out of the thicket into a pasture field with what appeared to be one heck of a nice buck. He chased her around for a time, a couple of brief glimmers of hope later, they ran off in the wrong direction. Typical.

At 735 or so, we heard something directed to our east. I told Mason "That's bigger than a squirrel", and soon saw his buck coming towards our stand through the underbrush. I fired up the camcorder and told Mason if the deer stayed on the same trail he would need to "hold high", which means he's over gonna be at 30 yards instead of the 20 we have his scope set for. We've used this same system since he was 7 yrs old, and it's worked before since changing the Horton's range adjustment is a trick for us to orchestrate in the moment. The deer came into an opening and Mason let loose with "Meee", he stopped a step to late, brush blocking his vitals. Mason held his fire. The deer started walking again and when he hit the next hole, I let loose with "MEEEEEEEEEE"! He took another step or two, stopped and waited for Mason's arrow to slam through his ribs and stick at the base of a tree I had a stand in two years ago! He bolted off and I felt for sure he was dead. However, the shot was a couple of inches farther back than I'd have liked, so I told Mason we were giving him time. We had to be at my buddy's place at 10 anyway for a Pheasants Forever youth hunt, so we went home, had breakfast and watched the video a half dozen times. It made me more certain we would find the deer.

We went to the pheasant hunt where the video of Mason's shot was enjoyed by a few on the lodge's flat screen. We enjoyed ourselves, gathered up a friend at the pheasant hunt and went to get the deer. He had gone a shade over 100 yards I'd guess.

That kid consistently makes me proud when it comes time to shoot. I know for me, it is sometimes all I can do to control my thoughts enough to make good decisions when I'm shooting at a deer...he is a stone cold killer until the shot is away.

I've always told him I'd have his first antlered deer mounted. Thankfully, he got a really nice one for his first buck. I haven't measured it yet, but I'm willing to guess he is gonna tape 120-125 as a clean 8. He's a really nice deer for a 10 year old boy. Before we even knew what his first buck would look like, we've been calling him "Lucky No.7", as I decided he was not going to shoot anymore does this season until his buck tag was filled. This is obviously his 7th deer, and thus the name. I think it's fitting.

He is pretty much done this season...except for the fact he is shooting his compound daily and really, really wants to kill a deer with it. His shooting is mighty good at this point, so after gun season, it's entirely possible we will be working on getting that deal off his wish list...

I may sleep in tomorrow.

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Milo said:

View attachment 17663

Brock asked me to post this for him. Mason's deer

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mrex said:

suck on that mike rex???

Looks like i'll have to pick a new athens co spot for my little buddy next fall...

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