Kentucky Youth Hunt: Son's First Deer

[petroid]

So we had several firsts today. My son got his first deer. He got the first deer with my 300BLK AR15. He got the first deer with one of my handloads. AND he got the first deer with my cast boolits!!! The boolit is the Lee C309-170F cast of range scrap with weight and hardness very similar to 50/50 COWW/Pb. Air cooled, Alox lubed, and Gator checked over 15.4gr IMR 4227. Dunno velocity but guessing 1600ish. Water jug testing yields good expansion and penetration. But enough about the boolits...

We set up in a crude blind behind my garage. I have been seeing deer on the trail cam every day in the back yard. Weren't in the blind 30 minutes when he says he thinks he sees a coyote. I said well, shoot it if you want, or wait for the deer. It was just a small deer behind some tall grass. When it stepped out, 30 yards away, I said its small but shoot it if you want. He did. The deer nearly did a full backflip and ran back the way it came. I saw blood on the chest and knew the shot was good. It didn't sound like it went far, but we waited ten minutes and then went up to the house get a drink and calm down. When we came back it wasn't twenty yards from where it had been shot. It turned out to be a button buck instead of a doe like we thought, but that's fine. Not much bigger than a dog, I'd guess live weight 75-80 pounds, it has to be this years brood. Ought to be some good eatin' though!
150876
Shot went straight through the heart
150877
Heres the bullet after shooting water jugs
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To say I'm a proud Papa is an understatement.

[Iron Whittler]

Congrats to your son for his first deer. Pop, spending quality time with your son now is a great thing. You are to be commended for your efforts. Looks like you've got a hunting buddy for life. Best wishes to you and your son. May this be the first of many hunts together.[smilie=w:

[Larry Gibson]

Well done. Way to start 'em out.

Larry Gibson

[marshall623]

Congrats , and that will be some good eating .

[skeettx]

WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please tell him that he did GREAT!!!
Mike

[RugerFan]

Fantastic! Love to read stories like this.

[OnHoPr]

Bravo for your son and for dad. Did you get him to do a bit of the dragging chore since it was close.

[ArcticGoose]

Well done! Good to see young men out hunting.

[petroid]

Bravo for your son and for dad. Did you get him to do a bit of the dragging chore since it was close.

I did it for him this time but if he gets another one he will have to help lol

[Djones]

Awesome story. Good job Dad!

[T-Bird]

Great story! My son's first deer looked just like that one. He said " you know dad, the small ones are harder to hit!"

[OnHoPr]

I like these first deer with dad threads. I always ask if the youngster did any of the draggin chores. It reminds me of my first deer back 35 years ago with my dad. Though, I was 20 yo and had been hunting PL for 5 years before I got one. I was on a small hilltop and watching about a 80 acre new clear cut where I could see about 50 yds into the hardwood ridges just about all around it. The buck was in the closest corner to my right and just behind a touch of my facing about 175 yds. I think I missed the first shot because of the wet logs that a made a quick shift clear cut stick log blind with that I was resting on. I stood up after the first miss and the buck took off on a trotter's trot back the way it came. The second shot down him. Before I got to the downed buck I was scoping it once in a while. I couldn't see horns when I keep scoping it and was saying to myself "I know I seen horns" & "My dad is going to be pissed", no doe permits that year. When I got to him is when I seen the horns. He had a standard smallish 4 pts on one side and 3 pts growing right straight down along the side of the head behind the jaw. The 4 pts were buried in the oak leaves, that's is why I couldn't see horns on the walk up to it.

The shot hit high in the shoulder blade and spined him. So, I took the SBH and gave him one in the head/neck joint. I grabbed by the horns and went to drag him so that his head was upgrade to gut him. While doing this his spine got poked hard from an oak stick and he kicked hard a few times. Heck I thought he was dead. You talk about jaw drop and eye opening when those hind quarters started kicking. That could really hurt. So, I put another 44 in the same joint from another angle. Well, I gutted my first deer and the sun had already set down behind the hardwood ridges. I put a rope on him and started to drag him. I drug him about 50 yds and said "fick this $h|t", I got two miles to go. I was a full back/tackle in HS and was 6' 190 lbs. So, I wedge him at a blow down and put logs and brush over him and started my walk back out. I told my dad and this and that and we went to him in the morning. We put about a 4" 9' oak stick between his tied legs and put him on our shoulders and started to walk out. After about 50 yds the oak stick broke, so we got one a little bigger. We went about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile with that way, but the swinging of him in stride was hard on the shoulders. So, I cut a couple of 2 1/2" green popple about 8' or so and put one stick on each side of his legs. Actually, that was a lot easier and a LOT less swinging and bouncing. Says so much about watching the movies hauling deer out with one stick. We took a couple of rest, but we did get him out and in the truck. Heck it was a deer, my first deer, you know, that the size of all deer sort of. Now that I reminisce, he was a big old gray nose buck in his last years. No, other deer that I have shot has drug that hard.

[Indiana shooter]

Congrats on the deer!!!!

I was fortunate enough to be with both my sons when they took their first deer. Brings a whole new excitement to the sport, doesn't it?

Be sure to give the young man a handshake for a job well done.

[petroid]

Thank you all for the congrats. He was disappointed on day two of the hunt when we didn't see anything. He really wanted to get a nice buck. He was disappointed at first that the "doe" he shot was actually a button buck, and he thought that he couldn't shoot another buck. When I explained that the term is "antlered" deer and the button buck didn't count as antlered, he was ok. Now he's upset that the youth season is only one weekend long. I then had to explain that he can still hunt during the regular season and that the youth season is a bonus for him.

I am improving our crude and hastily constructed blind and he went so far as to remark that it is "cool". That was enough to make my heart swell with pride as getting any positive response from him is hard-earned. Hope he gets another one and can learn more about dragging, skinning, and butchering.

[Indiana shooter]

Petroid, don't forget that Ky actually has 2 youth weekends. One was this past weekend the other is December 26 and 27 ( double check those days).

[TCLouis]

CONGRATULATIONS to the young man.

Yep I did mean to shout it out

[petroid]

Petroid, don't forget that Ky actually has 2 youth weekends. One was this past weekend the other is December 26 and 27 ( double check those days).

Yes those dates are correct. I plan on getting him back out there if he hasn't tagged out during the regular season. Weather is a factor, though. I might be able to rig up some heat if I can get the blind set up nice, though

[Edward]

Show him a shooter ,will not need any heat !!!!!!

[Hamish]

Outstanding, it just doesn't get too much better, thanks for sharing it with us!

[nagantguy]

Good job both of you!!!!!!!! You are raising a fine young man. Thank you for sharing.

[Butler Ford]

A day he'll never forget! Nor will you. Congratulations!

BF