Going into this season Andrew and I had high hopes for him. Last year he had managed to harvest 3 deer with his muzzy at 6 years old. That was quite the accomplishment. He got a new crossbow for Christmas but along came muzzy season and he filled his last two tags before he got time to really try out his new bow.
This year he was really looking forward to getting his first shot with a bow plus he would have more opportunities to hunt and he would be able to go during the heat of the rut.
To say it's been tough around here this season is an understatement. There just isn't many deer left around here anymore. This was Andrews 17th sit this season and many of those had been without any sightings. Thats enough to make a seasoned vet get aggravated, but not Andrew. He never got down and would always say " maybe next time " or " dad, you just got to have faith ". I'm not going to lie, i was getting pretty bummed about how things were going. I knew how hard he had prepared and how bad he wanted a shot. Im so proud of his attitude!
Anybody that has ever taken a young kid hunting knows that you need every "break" that you can get to make it happen and we just couldn't catch one. It's very trying at times, but when it comes together, there is no better feeling that I've ever experienced in the woods!
I got of work on Tuesday at 3 and picked Andrew up at 3:30. This past weekend the deer were beating us in there and were in the plot already when we got to his spot. By the time we were settled in it was 4:20 and fortunately we didn't bumped anything.
I had hung some doe urine behind the blind on our way in. We were in a hurry and my thinking was i just wanted to get the smell in the air.
Around 4:50 we hear a deer coming. I look out the front window and his buck is standing 10 yds away with his nose in the air trying to find the "doe", or maybe the smoke, (more on that later). He was too close and there was no way Andrew could move to get on his crossbow.
Finally he walked on into the plot and started eating. Andrew was able to get on him and he hit him right behind the shoulder at 25 yds. The buck ran about 60 yds and we heard him crash! Whant an awesome night and an awesome deer for an awesome kid! I'm so proud of my boy! He earned this deer!