Saturday morning finds me and my buddy TX_Phil in the cactus blind together trying to get him a doe, and my son Matt (MKD12) over in the highway blind looking for a management buck. Now Phil bought his Hoyt X-Tec from Chew just before the season, and he's become quite proficient with the thing after his first clean miss, and his second attempt when the old doe busted him eleven ways to Sunday. Now that was funny. "Yes Phil, they have very good vision too..."
Oops - I forgot to put my iPhone on silent. Ding! A text message from Matt telling me he's ok and got in the blind without issue, and that even though it was before daylight he already had deer in the pen. Quickly I flip it over to silent mode, and day light finds us. Phil and I see several bucks and watch them check scrapes, and look for doe. When they finally see a doe they chase her away from us. Even the poor doe fawns were gettin' eyeballed pretty hard. It was pretty cool anyway because Phil hasn't done a lot of hunting and he's getting a good dose of it this year.
Bzzzzt. I check the text and...
Matt:"OMG, big 8"
Matt: "He is every bit of 4.5 and 120 ish."
Dad: "Kill him."
Matt: "He just left, he stayed in the pen a good 10 seconds. He was waaayyy cautious."
Dad: "Take your time and find the right shot. Make it quickly if he comes back in. Be ready."
Now I look up at Phil and say "Matt is about to kill that buck." This is just as cool for Phil because Phil was there when Matt was born and placed a full sized NFL football in his crib. Phil and I were college roommates, and have been best friends for 25 years. I not only am understanding that my son is about to kill his first buck with a bow, but I also know he's doing it by making all the judgments himself. This buck needs to be 3 1/2 or older, and 120" or less. There's some fudge room for an 8 if he's older. But, no one is beside him with binos giving a thumbs up, or thumbs down.
About ten minutes passes and Phil and I are both sitting there in the blind like expectant fathers. We can't even concentrate on the deer in front of us. We are both watching the iPhone waiting for it to buzz.
Bzzzzt. I check the text and...
Matt: "Stuck him."
Dad: "Mark the time. 45 minutes before you even look for the arrow."
Dad: "How good was the hit?"
Matt: "Very good. I think you may end up getting mad at me for shooting this deer. We have never seen him on camera before. I am telling you his G2s are easily a foot long."
Matt: "There's blood on the feeder leg."
Dad: "Does he meet the criteria? 120" or less and 3 1/2 years old? I won't be mad. I'd rather you kill him. 45 minutes."
Dad: "You better see that blood through binoculars. Don't push him."
Matt: "He is every bit of 3 1/2 and his rack is close to 120, maybe better. This is the biggest 8 I've ever seen, Patrucia included."
Dad: "You are not pushing him, right?"
Matt: "I am in the blind."
Dad: "Stay there. Pass thru?"
Dad: "Where did you hit him?"
Matt: "I am quite sure it was, I don't think it was a dead perfect hit, but it was very good, it hit his vitals I'm 99% sure of that."
Dad: "Pass thru?"
Matt: "Yeah, it was because my arrow wasn't in him when he ran off."
Dad: "8:46 am you can get down. Phil and I will be there by then."
Matt: "Ok, cool."
Dad: "Are you shaking?"
Matt: "My legs did a little bit, but my arms were fine. I shook a little bit after the shot just cuz I was really hoping he'd die. But now I am fine again."
Dad: "Don't second guess. You did what you were asked to do."
Matt: "No, I'm fine. Everything went as planned."
Phil and I drive up to the blind and Matt is backing out and coming down the ladder. We walk around to the back of the feeder pen and Matt traces the steps of the buck. Right in front of the game camera is a bloody red arrow. Cameron's new wraps just got all messed up.
This is a great training tool because I get to show both Matt and Phil how to find a deer. Matt leads the way and we have good blood for the whole tracking job. The deer made it 250 yards or there about before piling up. Good blood all the way. We had to stop once or twice to look for the next spot, but the majority of the track was at a walking pace. The deer was nearly completely bled out when we found him. Matt caught the back of both lungs and center punched the liver.
The Mathews Outback, the Slick Trick and Cameron's wraps just wreaked havoc on the poor 5 1/2 year old 121 7/8" gross, 120" net Ozona area buck. The G2s were 11 7/8" and 11 1/2". The spread was narrow, but with 3 5/8" of mass, he's not a bad buck for a boys first bow buck.
Congratulations son. It was a blast. Let's do it again.
Cambo's wraps:
For those of you considering wraps for your arrows buy them. It just adds a layer of cool, and that's a good thing!
Oops - I forgot to put my iPhone on silent. Ding! A text message from Matt telling me he's ok and got in the blind without issue, and that even though it was before daylight he already had deer in the pen. Quickly I flip it over to silent mode, and day light finds us. Phil and I see several bucks and watch them check scrapes, and look for doe. When they finally see a doe they chase her away from us. Even the poor doe fawns were gettin' eyeballed pretty hard. It was pretty cool anyway because Phil hasn't done a lot of hunting and he's getting a good dose of it this year.
Bzzzzt. I check the text and...
Matt:"OMG, big 8"
Matt: "He is every bit of 4.5 and 120 ish."
Dad: "Kill him."
Matt: "He just left, he stayed in the pen a good 10 seconds. He was waaayyy cautious."
Dad: "Take your time and find the right shot. Make it quickly if he comes back in. Be ready."
Now I look up at Phil and say "Matt is about to kill that buck." This is just as cool for Phil because Phil was there when Matt was born and placed a full sized NFL football in his crib. Phil and I were college roommates, and have been best friends for 25 years. I not only am understanding that my son is about to kill his first buck with a bow, but I also know he's doing it by making all the judgments himself. This buck needs to be 3 1/2 or older, and 120" or less. There's some fudge room for an 8 if he's older. But, no one is beside him with binos giving a thumbs up, or thumbs down.
About ten minutes passes and Phil and I are both sitting there in the blind like expectant fathers. We can't even concentrate on the deer in front of us. We are both watching the iPhone waiting for it to buzz.
Bzzzzt. I check the text and...
Matt: "Stuck him."
Dad: "Mark the time. 45 minutes before you even look for the arrow."
Dad: "How good was the hit?"
Matt: "Very good. I think you may end up getting mad at me for shooting this deer. We have never seen him on camera before. I am telling you his G2s are easily a foot long."
Matt: "There's blood on the feeder leg."
Dad: "Does he meet the criteria? 120" or less and 3 1/2 years old? I won't be mad. I'd rather you kill him. 45 minutes."
Dad: "You better see that blood through binoculars. Don't push him."
Matt: "He is every bit of 3 1/2 and his rack is close to 120, maybe better. This is the biggest 8 I've ever seen, Patrucia included."
Dad: "You are not pushing him, right?"
Matt: "I am in the blind."
Dad: "Stay there. Pass thru?"
Dad: "Where did you hit him?"
Matt: "I am quite sure it was, I don't think it was a dead perfect hit, but it was very good, it hit his vitals I'm 99% sure of that."
Dad: "Pass thru?"
Matt: "Yeah, it was because my arrow wasn't in him when he ran off."
Dad: "8:46 am you can get down. Phil and I will be there by then."
Matt: "Ok, cool."
Dad: "Are you shaking?"
Matt: "My legs did a little bit, but my arms were fine. I shook a little bit after the shot just cuz I was really hoping he'd die. But now I am fine again."
Dad: "Don't second guess. You did what you were asked to do."
Matt: "No, I'm fine. Everything went as planned."
Phil and I drive up to the blind and Matt is backing out and coming down the ladder. We walk around to the back of the feeder pen and Matt traces the steps of the buck. Right in front of the game camera is a bloody red arrow. Cameron's new wraps just got all messed up.
This is a great training tool because I get to show both Matt and Phil how to find a deer. Matt leads the way and we have good blood for the whole tracking job. The deer made it 250 yards or there about before piling up. Good blood all the way. We had to stop once or twice to look for the next spot, but the majority of the track was at a walking pace. The deer was nearly completely bled out when we found him. Matt caught the back of both lungs and center punched the liver.
The Mathews Outback, the Slick Trick and Cameron's wraps just wreaked havoc on the poor 5 1/2 year old 121 7/8" gross, 120" net Ozona area buck. The G2s were 11 7/8" and 11 1/2". The spread was narrow, but with 3 5/8" of mass, he's not a bad buck for a boys first bow buck.
Congratulations son. It was a blast. Let's do it again.
Cambo's wraps:
For those of you considering wraps for your arrows buy them. It just adds a layer of cool, and that's a good thing!
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