This year my 12 year old son Matthew passed his hunter ed. The anticipation level was high. In the archery season, we found ourselves travelling the province trying to to put him in front of a mule deer or an elk. We had some extremely close encounters and good chances, but ultimately didnt connect. On two occasions we had elk under 10 yards in our ground blind. One morning with 200-300 head of elk filing past our ground blind. The adrenalin was flowing!!!

Anyone that has bowhunted with children knows how challenging it can be. I've had him tagging along since he was 3, so it's not new, but no less challenging.

Lessons learned and good times behind us we were on the search for a whitetail buck. We hunted the farmland around our own farm all the way out to the mountains west of home. We found bucks, but the situation didnt present itself to be just right.

On Friday I decided to keep him home from school for the am and we'd check out our farm. As it turned out, the wind was totaly wrong for an early morning walk on our land, so we checked out the neighbours place. Basically hunting the same herd of deer, just approaching from the opposite direction. We found several does and a decent buck. After calling the neighbour to confirm he was ok with us hunting there AND was not currently hunting in there himself, we reapproached the field and found a good solid place to glass and shoot from. The does had seen us and were getting nervous. As they milled around, so did the buck. I was telling Matthew not look at the antlers, remember what I taught him about shot placement and breath control. I was also reinforcing that he wouldnt stand there forever!! He shot and missed. The deer all took off running for the safety of the trees.  The buck taking up the rear of the herd, I told Matthew to reload and stay on him. "If he stops, aim high on his shoulder. Wait for him to stop". As he ran away, he was JUST about to drop out of sight when Matthew shot again. The buck dropped in his tracks. I didnt expect him to shoot on the run, but he did, and was on target.

After high 5's and hugs from Dad, we retrieved his buck and visited our friends the landowners to thank them.

Here's his well earned buck.   



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Grats Matthew great buck and story

Father and son Priceless

Thanks for sharing

David

That's a nice deer Matt, Congrats! Your hooked now!

Way to go Matt I still remember my first deer 17 years ago.   

That's awesome.  A big Congrats!!

Matthew says thanks guys!!

Oh to be 12 years old again. So many firsts ahead.....

Big Congrats Matt.... Doug you had better watch it, or he will be replacing your mounts on the wall, with his.

Oh ya- I'm sure he has big plans for an expanded trophy room!!