A kids first deer.... - 12/11/23
Copied from the "Christmas " thread over in the Campfire.
Wife and my gift to a friend.
His mom dates a good friend and took some of my deer jerky home to 'the kid' last year which is how this all came about.
We bought his out of state license, supplied the rifle, ammo etc and put him and mom up for the stay.
He's heavily gotten into hunting but has no places for deer back in Tenn.
Hasn't seen or spoke to his dad in over 2 years.
His Granny has 7-8 acres that he killed 2 gobblers on last spring[1st big game taken].
I was to be his guide, poor kid.
This past weekend was 'the weekend'.
Mother & son arrived late on Friday morning-8:30am, the planned arrival was around 6am but mom[and son] had to attend their work Annual/Christmas awards banquet the night before, she's a manager for the company so missing it was not an option[the son works there as well] which kept them out fairly late.
Temps were rising fast Friday morn with the high expected around 60.
We bumped several doe heading to the blind but saw nothing the rest of the morning.
He's in my favorite spot.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/b8IrVNgm.jpg)
At about 12:30 he says "i'm hungry" and the snacks we brought along were already gone so we headed to the house for lunch.
I had him back in the blind by 2:30 ready for the evening hunt. I went to a ladder stand this time just over a rise but only maybe 150yards out.
About 5 I see a lone deer coming down the hill through the woods heading towards us but angling towards the field the kid is watching. It's a buck but I'm not sure of anything beyond that size-wise.
I send him a text, he replies "ok, I'm ready"[I can only imagine].
The next 5-10 minutes seem like an eternity and then the 'boom' comes!
The next message comes a minute or two later "I think I hit him"
I call him and through the hyperventilating I get that he ran across the field and over a hill after the shot but wasn't running like a deer normally runs[it took some prodding to get that tidbit out of him].
I was already on the ground and slowly headed towards him.
When I got to him he was shaking like it was zero degrees!
We stood for a few minutes and discussed how it went, where the deer ran, making a plan to go see where it ran etc, just trying to calm him a bit.
We headed to where the deer was when he shot, nothing!
No blood anywhere!
We drop over the hill where it ran and there it lay!
It raised it's head one final time and died as we were approaching it.
After a pic or two and call to his mom he looked at me and said "I'll let you gut it, I made a mess of the two turkeys I shot last spring"
Sent him home with a big ol' smile and a cooler full of venison along with some head gear to show off.
Merry Christmas kid!!
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/9KCEdQ4l.jpg)
Wife and my gift to a friend.
His mom dates a good friend and took some of my deer jerky home to 'the kid' last year which is how this all came about.
We bought his out of state license, supplied the rifle, ammo etc and put him and mom up for the stay.
He's heavily gotten into hunting but has no places for deer back in Tenn.
Hasn't seen or spoke to his dad in over 2 years.
His Granny has 7-8 acres that he killed 2 gobblers on last spring[1st big game taken].
I was to be his guide, poor kid.
This past weekend was 'the weekend'.
Mother & son arrived late on Friday morning-8:30am, the planned arrival was around 6am but mom[and son] had to attend their work Annual/Christmas awards banquet the night before, she's a manager for the company so missing it was not an option[the son works there as well] which kept them out fairly late.
Temps were rising fast Friday morn with the high expected around 60.
We bumped several doe heading to the blind but saw nothing the rest of the morning.
He's in my favorite spot.
At about 12:30 he says "i'm hungry" and the snacks we brought along were already gone so we headed to the house for lunch.
I had him back in the blind by 2:30 ready for the evening hunt. I went to a ladder stand this time just over a rise but only maybe 150yards out.
About 5 I see a lone deer coming down the hill through the woods heading towards us but angling towards the field the kid is watching. It's a buck but I'm not sure of anything beyond that size-wise.
I send him a text, he replies "ok, I'm ready"[I can only imagine].
The next 5-10 minutes seem like an eternity and then the 'boom' comes!
The next message comes a minute or two later "I think I hit him"
I call him and through the hyperventilating I get that he ran across the field and over a hill after the shot but wasn't running like a deer normally runs[it took some prodding to get that tidbit out of him].
I was already on the ground and slowly headed towards him.
When I got to him he was shaking like it was zero degrees!
We stood for a few minutes and discussed how it went, where the deer ran, making a plan to go see where it ran etc, just trying to calm him a bit.
We headed to where the deer was when he shot, nothing!
No blood anywhere!
We drop over the hill where it ran and there it lay!
It raised it's head one final time and died as we were approaching it.
After a pic or two and call to his mom he looked at me and said "I'll let you gut it, I made a mess of the two turkeys I shot last spring"
Sent him home with a big ol' smile and a cooler full of venison along with some head gear to show off.
Merry Christmas kid!!
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/Ypdmf0Bm.jpg)