So my little brother finally turned 10, the day my dad and I have been waiting for forever. We knew we could get him an opportunity during an October whitetail hunt. So a very high odds tag is what he drew.
The night before the hunt everyone was BSing in the trailer and I started asking him about buck fever. This being his first hunt ever, he thought I was crazy when I told him about getting buck fever when you get behind the gun on a deer.
So opening morning comes and after a long drive we stop to glass the first ridge from the road and my dad glasses a group of small bucks right away. I grab the gun and walk him down the road to get him closer. We finally found a spot he could shoot from at about 350. We got him laid down, as comfortable as possible, and set up on the deer and he informs me I forgot his ear plugs.. so ran back up the road, ran back down and we repeated the whole process again. Well he finally got the deer in his scope and he turns to me and says "Dude I've got the wiggles just like you said I would." It took everything in me to contain my laughter. So we repeat the whole process of finding the deer in the scope. Luckily one of the bucks in particular was begging to get shot at. Standing in the wide open, shining in the sun and broadside. After what was probably 15-20 minutes he pulled the trigger.. and he pulled the trigger again.. and again.
He shot what looked like an inch high, an inch low, and an inch left and the buck finally realized he better leave the ridge he was on. So Tyson and I walked down the road across the canyon to get closer. I picked the buck up at 400 yards and after a few minutes of trying to find it in the scope the buck fed off out of sight. So we walked to the next ridge and got above the buck and glassed for awhile and I finally picked out the buck bedded at 200 yards. Unfortunately he was pretty well tucked into some cedars and we couldn't get Tyson on him. Finally I took a picture through the 15s and explained to him exactly what we were looking at.
Obviously we couldn't see much, but I figured it was enough to make a lethal shot on him. So after at least an hour he decided he could see the deer and see where he needed to shoot him.
BOOOM
The buck spun around in his bed and looked like he wasn't going anywhere but he eventually stood up and stumbled out of sight. So after a bit of glassing my dad walked down to check it out and to our heart break I watched the buck trot up and out of his bed over the ridge and out of sight. We knew there was no way that was possible and my dad finally got to the exact spot where the deer was at he shot and a deer came flying out of there but didn't make it far before laying down again. So we gave it another 15 minutes. My dad finally walked in there again and found him dead. My little brother heard my dad yelling down in the bottom and he ran as fast as a 10 year old could straight to the bottom. Told me he couldn't carry anything down because "he had bigger things to worry about." He has to see his deer 😂 Come to find out it wasn't the deer he originally shot at, it was actually this biggest buck in the group.
All the emotions and fun of watching someone get to harvest their first animal is undescribable. Definitely a hunt I'll never forget.
