Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Young hunter success

Too much of a backstory to convey accurately. In short a 13 year old was able to harvest his 1st deer. An older doe with no fawn. 13 yard shot. Deer ran less than 20 yards and crumbled within sight of our ground blind. Lasted just a few seconds. Very clean and ethical harvest.



He is my son. Product of a divorced home. I get him during the summer and a few breaks in between. The divorced parents with kids realize its tough. Even tougher for a young man that was born to hunt and thinks his father is a Hero and emulates his every move.

We've shot archery together for 3 years now. Kids love bows and arrows. It's quiet. And there is no reloading involved and there is not a current Arrow Scare. We can find supplies anywhere.

We got into 3D tournaments from the get go. But I only have him late June thru end of August. We get 3+ shoots in per season. This has really helped my son focus. Clinically ADHD and Dyslexic.... School isn't a blast for him and passing is an uphill battle. Archery forces him into a mental checklist. Some shoots he is a Hammer. Others, he's a schitt show. You can see when he loses focus and gets fatigued.

I purchased a home on some acreage. We were able to hunt right from home. We'd watched local deer all summer. One bossy doe we named Scar, as she had a streak down her side. She was the meanest deer we had on the property. Always running the other does and fawns off. We decided to Green Light her if given the chance.

I was real concerned for his set up. He is shooting a Hoyt Ruckus at 43 lbs. His DL is 25". But his penetration in our block was pretty feeble. We chono'd his rig at 213fps. I don't recall his arrow weight. Think GPI is 7.4 on a Gold Tip. Everyone recommended a cut on contact 2 blade head. He ran a Carbon Express Nativ. I hand honed it to a razor finish.

He was too erratic at 20 yards. After discussing with fellow shooters, it was decided to set him up at 13 yards. The idea was that he could make the shot if an opportunity came or we would have no shot at all. A very tough decision, as we get 1-3 days to hunt each year. If this didnt pan out.....it's dream of hunting again in 364 days.

I made him practice shooting from a kneeling position. Made him shoot in his hunting clothes. He found out some clothes squeak. That a hood blocks your anchor point. I gave him a dedicated 13 yard pin. He checked the drop from 13 to 16 yards. Went over a types of angles.

We practiced drawing on deer a few days before. Getting the timing down. Shot angles. And No Shoots.

We had deer in front of us early on. A doe with a fawn. No go. A solo doe in the early evening hunt. She offered no good angles. A nail biter but never a shot opportunity.

Just when we thought we were done, Scar appeared. He saw the trademark scar on the side. A non verbal Thumbs Up conveyed the Green Light was on.

He was very patient and mature waiting for the angle. Maybe 9 minutes of a shoot able deer at 13 yards! I was coming unglued. She finally changed her position and the bow was up. One more step and the leg stretched opening that pocket we watched on TV shows for the past 10 years. Just like that....PLUNK!

I did not see the arrow hit. She ran off maybe 8 yards and looked at her side. Kicked once. Ran a circle and flopped over. That's it. THEN the shakes happened. He was beside himself. There was no question of the outcome. We could see her down right there.

So he learned failure. He has hunted for 3 years without harvest. He's learned work and practice will eventually pay off. Persistence. As well as the joy of success.

I had to make the 3 hour drive and return him to his "Custodial Parent". Back to the city. Guns and bows are gone til Christmas. Back to a world of video games and latch key self sitting. It's always hard for me. Thinking of all the time and adventures we will never have. I pulled into the driveway and saw the archery target we shot at all summer. Couldn't keep it together. From such highs to such lows in 24 hours....

Outstanding story sir!

Forgot to add that his aenemic rig produced a complete pass thru and arrow was lodged in a stump. True double lung. Between ribs, perfect vertical cut both sides. There was no blood trail. We would have been hurting if she ran any distance.

......and a 13 year old First Timer can make gutting and skinning a deer an Eternity.

Congrats all around!!! Excellent job.

Folks don't understand why those of us in the sport that have been around, lean to cut on contact heads... Wife shot em for years from 45-55 pounds with her short draw.... and lighter arrows.

An eskimo head, cut through a boar hog over 350 pounds as he bottomed our scale out... through a THICK shield, through the heart, and the point was sticking about an inch out the other shield.

Good job. Keep it up!

BTW you would not have hurt on the blood trail, it takes time to develop one... I"ve rarely seen much the first 30 yards or so.... You have to bleed first, and then has to fill up to the height of the hit so to speak....

With that hit you'd have found her one way or the other.

You're right on the eventual recovery. Was discussing w my core of hunting Pards the same thing.

I am a rifleman and gun looney foremost. I am a 3D shooter 2nd. I am not really much of a bow hunter. I haven't killed a deer with a bow in 20+ years. And in only 42. I'd much rather use a rifle.

My archery HUNTING skills are lacking. Looking at the arrow I would not have diagnosed it as a fatal hit. Little blood on vanes. No gut or schitt smell(obviously there were no guts hit). I've smelled those arrows from other hunters.

But no frothy blood. No bright colored blood that you read is supposed to be present.

Any no blood trail. I could have searched the area much harder but we were wrapt up in the moment. It was pretty thick where she initially ran. It would have been tough to get the initial trail going.

A bittersweet story, but you are doing the best you can with the cards you hold.

He will remember the experience until his dying day, you can bet on that.

carbon arrows show very little blood.

You can have bubbles in none lung blood....

Having over 100 bowkills all I can say is you BETTER be able to walk to the SPOT of the hit. I mean lock it in your memory for later when you go there. I've even taken to shooting a field tip into the dirt there also as a marker if need be.

First thing I look for period, is the dig in tracks from where you hit it. Could care less about blood.

At that point you WILL find hair. Thats the first clue for me. Mark the sight with a stick, something.... then you genearlly can follow hard tracks the first 10 yards or so typically easily... keep marking with sticks... somewhere in there you may find blood or not. Remember bugs and such are attractted to it. Daddy longlegs especially.

Remember that they will follow trails, that they often blood abbove the ground, sometimes its lots easier to follow the blood on stuff at body height than in the dirt.

But once you have blood trail going from a lethal hit( they are not all lethal trust me) then at that point its generally fairly easy to find them. Note it could well take 10 minutes or an hour just depending but if you keep marking the trail and looking back, you keep getting a general idea of the places to keep looking. Worst case you can sometimes follow the tracks since you know that animal from the get go, and how far the stride is.

Granted some deer have taken hours to find, but the evidence is always there.

And we've been really lucky since the 70s, a few deer lost, we've only actually found one later that was dead, it was easily found and I was not there when they shot it, or trailed it. They simply forgot to look in an obvious place by a house, and thats where she went...

I'm a firm believer that if you can't find em, they are not dead. Even have seen a couple survive gut shots.

Amazing animals they are.

Archery teaches you the art of trailing/tracking combined. Its WELL worth it even to rifle hunters, for those bad days that we all have now and then.

By the way, bright blood, at least my description of bright blood is a flesh wound most of the time and almost never fatal.

Lung blood is light, but not bright. More pinkish sort of.

It's too bad that a blood trailing dog is not legal in Washington. You'd think some of the German breeds are used to both flush game and trail wounded game from driven hunts, would be the ultimate in conservation tools to recover game.

I wouldn't even know where to find one if I needed one......



Wink....

Many good tips in the post though. I'll reread it a few times and learn.

My thoughts exactly! Good job, both of you.

Fine young man! You can only do what you can with the times you have your son, make em count Im sure that you will, I belive he will turn out just fine. and a big CONGRADS on the Deer!

Good read - hard story, and I've been there with my oldest daughter. Hope the tensions ease up for the boy's sake. Prayers to you for the coming year and the wait.

I appreciate all the kind comments and Well Wishing. In reality I am just one Father with millions of other men in the same spot.

I gave up a good deal to get back closer to my kids. Lost $152K in housing markets taking a schitt. Lost a "stripe" of sorts and elected to self demote in order to relocate.

But my son realizes it all. We speak in plain English. All of the life lessons are discussed. There is not twisted "moral" to be interpreted in our relationship. I prefer to decifer it all and Hot Wash it.

I told him to close his eyes and burn that memory into his brain. Enjoy and savor those moments, sights, sounds and the feeling. And to never forget it.

He called me yesterday right after getting home from 1st day of 8th grade. He was heating the pan for backstrap Fajitas as we were speaking.......he's off to a good start!!!

Great write-up and even better experience. That's a memory he will have forever.

Wow man. Thanks for sharing your story. You may have limited time to spend with your son but you are certainly making the most of it. Good job Dad.

That was a great story. Congrats on both of your success. You have planted a seed in that young man, and that seed will continue to grow. You are DEFINATELY do the most with the limited time with him. I too have a 13 year old son, 8th grade as well, but he likes shooting guns instead of bows :-(
He loves hunting and fishing and has taken a few deer with his rifle now.

Thanks for sharing the boys first deer hunt.....

Great story sir -

Keep on keeping on -

Congrats to your young man!

keep your chin up, do what you can to continue to encourage him to strive for what he wants. This pleasureable lesson he just learned applies to many things.