Braedon's First Archery Buck

[wildwoody]

the first of many to come i'm shore

[randyolson]

Fantastic!!!!! Congrats on a nice Buck!!!

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations to him on a mighty fine first!

[DNS]

Congrats on a great buck!!!

[capoeirajosh]

Very cool! Congrats to you both!

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Well, I've been away from the computer for a few days and the internet was down so finally I get to write a quick story.

 

Last Friday my wife picked up my son from school and brought him to Snowflake where I work. I was able to get things wrapped up and at 12;30 we were on the road. When we were about an hour out of our hunting area a buddy of mine called and said he had just glassed up 3 bucks, they were up and moving for the evening. We raced through town and quickly changed to camo. Immediately we started seeing more deer and more bucks moving, I decided to take my son and make a stalk on some small bucks. After 2-3 spoiled attempts in the first 30 min,I glassed back up behind us and a 25" 2x2 was headed our way. We tucked ourselves into a cedar and waited as he made his way toward us. As he angled slightly away I figured that after the buck went behind a cedar at 50 yards I would have my son draw and be ready to shoot as he came out the opposite side. Sure enough as he passed behind the tree and started to come out Braedon was waiting with his bow drawn.

He released the arrow and shot just under the buck. The big 2x2 jumped ran 10-15 yards and looked back trying to decide what had just happened. I ranged the buck again, 42 yards, Braedon drew his bow and as the buck stepped out he shot. I heard the distinct sound of arrow connecting but the buck acted un-hurt, he ran off with little or no sign of any wound.

To make a long story short emotions went from extreme high to extreme low over the next 5 hours as we tracked most of the night, some blood was found but no buck.

The next morning I had my son continue to look for blood and track while I got on a high knob and started to glass. Almost at first light I spotted the big 2x2 with a blood spot on his front chest, walking and feeding back into the thick cedars. He was moving a little slower than some of the other deer, but was doing fine and was not fatally wounded. I then jumped in the truck to pick my son up and move to another location, as soon as we did, this buck gave us a 34 yard shot, he hit it slightly back and after a couple grueling hours of tracking and glassing, my son picks the buck up bedded in the sage, after one more well placed arrow, Braedon had his first archery buck.

 

It was a great couple of days and I'm glad I was able to share it with my son. We got to talk about effort, moral responsibility and he was able to experience the extremity of bow hunting. Hopefully he will be a better hunter and make sure he is as prepared as possible before each hunt. There is never a guarantee in bow hunting and even with the best, things can and will go wrong. I believe that how we act and how we think after the "mistake" or lack of judgement, is ethics, not the deed in and of itself. Even though Braedon wounded another buck we spent many hours looking, tracking, and determining that the buck would be just fine, it was hard enough on my son to think he lost the first buck, I was so glad we got to help boost his hunting confidence with another buck even though it was shot just off the road.

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words. He has been and still is on cloud nine.. He thinks he can shoot a bigger one this weekend in AZ.

[JTO]

I hope he connects on one in AZ! Thanks for sharing and congrats to you and your son.