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This years juniors hunt was one my son Garrett and I were very excited for. We spent countless hours scouting, studying maps, finding water and just gaining as much knowledge we can of a unit we've been hunting for years already. We had seen some great bucks in new areas and some good mature bucks in the old standby spots so we knew it would be fun, the question was how many bucks would Garrett pass on before he couldn't take the excitement . We had previous engagements for the opening weekend and planned on heading up Thursday, hunting through Sunday which was the last day for this hunt. As goes with most things, all the preparation in the world can't help you prevent life from getting in the way! Thursday was a wash so we ended up leaving about 2:30am Friday morning to make sure we could get to the first spot in time to check a trail cam and hike in to setup before daylight. This particular cam acted up for some reason and quit taking pictures after 1 day so we had very little action to look at. After checking the pictures on the stick we made the 3/4 mile hike in to the ridge we wanted to setup on first thing and were in position with plenty of time to discuss glassing strategy on who will cover which areas first, as we knew the first hour of light would be the most important. As hot as it has been, and with the full moon, the bucks have been heading to cover fairly quickly. We ended up sitting back to back with binos on the tripods ready for the glows of the sun to light up the hills enough to see. Within 10 minutes after we could start glassing Garrett picked up 3 does about a mile out and watched them for a few minutes before they dropped into a shadowy draw with no bucks in tail. That was the norm for the next 2 hours with us glassing up 6 different small herd of deer, all of them does. It was quickly apparent that we needed to get into the thicker, more rugged country about 2 ridges over before we could start finding the bucks. We high tailed it back to the truck, restocked on water and snacks & figured we'd climb to the thicker country hoping to pic up a buck bedded in the brush. Once in position, I quickly picked up a spike moving across a hill about 500 yards out. Being a spike and the first buck, Garrett gladly let him walk in hopes to see him in a few years. While watching him walk down the slope I picked up a small forkie bedded about 350 yards in the shade. Garrett put the binos on him and decided since he was about the same size as the spike but decided to fork that he'd pass on him as well. I could see the excitement and jitters starting to build and I knew the first decent buck we saw would be his next trophy. After finishing glassing the ridges we could see we decided to press over the next ridge. As we dropped down the backside of the hill we were glassing on we had to pass through some really thick brush so I had Garrett lead the way in case we jumped a bedded buck. Sure enough, half way down the slope a deer busted out of the thick trotting away from us. I could see it was a buck, and that he was bigger than the other 2 we had seen so I told Garrett to get ready in case he's the one he's been looking for. After he cleared the brush, Garrett let out a whistle and stopped him in his tracks, broadside about 175 yards out. This is where the patience of a newly turned 15 year old really impressed me. He took the time to pull up his binos and really study both his rack and body size and told me he would be very happy with this buck because of how tall he is and how much meat we would get from him. With a smile on my face I told him that if he's happy, I'm happy. He setup on the shooting sticks and with one shot dropped him where he stood. Words can't describe the enjoyment I get out of hunting with my kids and this was just another amazing memory for our books. A trophy truly is in the enjoyment, experience and knowledge gained rather than the size of the rack. Well done son! As always, I had a blast hunting with you. Those javelina better be scared come January 1, you're just as good a shot with a bow as your rifle . Joe Kauffman