My first son (now 25) was hunting with me at 4, sitting in the duck blind plinking decoys with his bb gun, and shooting rabbits with his compound bow by 7; my younger son was a late bloomer. He would literally say, "when are we going home? this outdoor stuff ain't for me". I didn't press him too hard, and finally he began to express interest last year, at age 10. With him being less nimble than his older brother, I decided to start him out with a crossbow (this took some convincing, since he had heard me make fun of crossbow shooters for years). After shooting a couple of javelina last year, he said he was ready to shoot a deer. Fast forward to this season, we spent most of October practicing on a 3d deer target in the backyard at 20 yards. He shot 2 shots per day. Then we looked at many different deer photos on google, having him point out the kill zone, without the advantage of an outlined kill zone like the target had. The week before the hunt, he was having trouble going to sleep at night from his excitement building. Finally, we were in Webb County, sitting in a brush blind we built the same day. A doe stepped out, he shouldered his crossbow on the bi-pod, and I heard his breathing get deep and fast as he looked through the scope. I ranged her at 28 yards, but before I could whisper to wait, he squeezed off just like we had practiced, and immediately proclaimed "I GOT HER!". After viewing go-pro video, he did in fact make a good shot. She ducked the string about 5 inches, but he still got in the chest. Here is his result. He is already asking when we can go back.
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