I'm one proud father! My son shot his first buck last night, and it was a dandy 8pt that he's been chasing for the last week.
This is only his third year hunting and his second deer, after shooting his first, a big doe, last season. Both with his muzzleloader to boot! He is definitely hooked on hunting for life. He was all by himself, and was more than a little excited when he called me at 4:14pm at work asking me to 'hurry home because he just shot the 8pt he's been hunting.'
He found his core area and has been still & stand hunting hoping to get a crack at him. He managed to call him out using a bleat can the other night, but scared him shouldering his rifle to fast in the excitement, and had to listen to him grunt & snort just out of sight through the trees until it got too dark to see. He managed to fool him again last night, with the bleat can, and was able to get a standing broadside shot at 70yds. He hit him a bit far forward, through the near front shoulder (without breaking any bones) took out a rib on the near side, and another on the far side, and out through the other shoulder (again without breaking bones). Both lungs were jelly and he split the top of the heart.
He's shooting 80g (V) of BH209 with a 300gr Harvester Scorpion PT Gold and a Harvester smooth black sabot and Winchester W209 primer in his CVA Wolf, with a Bushnell Banner 3-9x40mm scope.
He never saw him react to the shot in the smoke of the muzzy. But watched him run off out of site and heard him go down. He followed him into the woods where he lost sight of him where he took a 90 degree turn for about 50yds, then pulled another 90 and then doubled back heading to where my son had first lost sight of him. He found him where he'd crawled in under a fir and some blowdown! By the time I got home and drove back to help, he had his buck dragged out to the road and was waiting, his face beaming far brighter than the flashlight he was proudly lighting up his deer with for me to see. Absolutely priceless. Memories like that cannot be bought!
We took some pics with his phone (I'll try to get some posted on here soon), did some hugging & high fiving while he gave me the play by play of how the hunt unfolded. Winding up with us loading his first buck, a really nice 8pt field dressing between 170-180lbs, into the truck. We took a liver sample for the university study on the health of the provincial deer herd, and beat it to the butchers to hang & skin the deer and get him in the cooler. By 9:30pm our work was done, the buck was hanging & chillin', and we were on the road back home, both on cloud nine.
I couldn't be more proud, and the only way it could have been better were if I had been standing beside him when he shot him. He made meat again, and he did it all on his own, and he did it old school. He found a spot with sign, and was seeing does. He put his time in until rut activity picked up and buck sign started showing up, then hunted out a buck's core area and used a combination of still hunting, stand hunting (natural ground blinds), and calling to get not one but two opportunities at the buck he was targeting.
The boy is now truly a Hunter. #ProudHunters!
***As soon as I figure out (or more likely get the kids to show me) how to reduce the file size of pics we took on my son's phone I will post a couple on here.
This is only his third year hunting and his second deer, after shooting his first, a big doe, last season. Both with his muzzleloader to boot! He is definitely hooked on hunting for life. He was all by himself, and was more than a little excited when he called me at 4:14pm at work asking me to 'hurry home because he just shot the 8pt he's been hunting.'
He found his core area and has been still & stand hunting hoping to get a crack at him. He managed to call him out using a bleat can the other night, but scared him shouldering his rifle to fast in the excitement, and had to listen to him grunt & snort just out of sight through the trees until it got too dark to see. He managed to fool him again last night, with the bleat can, and was able to get a standing broadside shot at 70yds. He hit him a bit far forward, through the near front shoulder (without breaking any bones) took out a rib on the near side, and another on the far side, and out through the other shoulder (again without breaking bones). Both lungs were jelly and he split the top of the heart.
He's shooting 80g (V) of BH209 with a 300gr Harvester Scorpion PT Gold and a Harvester smooth black sabot and Winchester W209 primer in his CVA Wolf, with a Bushnell Banner 3-9x40mm scope.
He never saw him react to the shot in the smoke of the muzzy. But watched him run off out of site and heard him go down. He followed him into the woods where he lost sight of him where he took a 90 degree turn for about 50yds, then pulled another 90 and then doubled back heading to where my son had first lost sight of him. He found him where he'd crawled in under a fir and some blowdown! By the time I got home and drove back to help, he had his buck dragged out to the road and was waiting, his face beaming far brighter than the flashlight he was proudly lighting up his deer with for me to see. Absolutely priceless. Memories like that cannot be bought!
We took some pics with his phone (I'll try to get some posted on here soon), did some hugging & high fiving while he gave me the play by play of how the hunt unfolded. Winding up with us loading his first buck, a really nice 8pt field dressing between 170-180lbs, into the truck. We took a liver sample for the university study on the health of the provincial deer herd, and beat it to the butchers to hang & skin the deer and get him in the cooler. By 9:30pm our work was done, the buck was hanging & chillin', and we were on the road back home, both on cloud nine.
I couldn't be more proud, and the only way it could have been better were if I had been standing beside him when he shot him. He made meat again, and he did it all on his own, and he did it old school. He found a spot with sign, and was seeing does. He put his time in until rut activity picked up and buck sign started showing up, then hunted out a buck's core area and used a combination of still hunting, stand hunting (natural ground blinds), and calling to get not one but two opportunities at the buck he was targeting.
The boy is now truly a Hunter. #ProudHunters!
***As soon as I figure out (or more likely get the kids to show me) how to reduce the file size of pics we took on my son's phone I will post a couple on here.