Son's First Buck

Nice. Tell him congrats. He even got to shoot it with Dad's old gun. My kudos to the mentor as well. 
 
I'm glad they still let the kids shoot those tender young bucks. My father's antler collection consists of a lot of those little "mountain deer" racks. It's kinda funny that for his generation having a spike in your collection will be more of a rarity than a nice 8 point. 
 
I really hope I can find a gun my daughter can shoot well at her age. She is chomping at the bit to go hunting with me. I think next year we'll do some squirrel hunting for sure. Hopefully, we can get her comfortable with something larger than her .22

Give him a big 'high 5' for that one!  Love the smile!! 

Thanks everyone.  I do think I was more excited than he was!
 
dakotakid, the best advice I can give you with regards to your daughter is to find a gun that fits first and foremost.
 
I started having my son shoot an old Winchester model 70 Featherweight in .243 that I inherited from my uncle a few years ago.  A fine deer caliber and pretty light recoil for a youngster.  Shooting at targets was fine, but I was seeing that for hunting situations it wasn't a good fit.  It's as long as most adult rifles, and he was having trouble getting on deer through the scope - this was the third buck this season where we've had the safety off and he's had the green light to shoot!  On the other two, he was having a hard time getting a good sight picture through the scope.  I noticed that he was really having to move his head around a lot.
 
So I mounted an old 2.5x scope on my 30/30 Saturday and sighted it in.  He had shot the 30/30 before with open sights, so he was familiar with it.  It was a much better fit because the scope was closer to his eye and the eye relief was just about right as soon as it hit his shoulder, without much squirming and head movement. The recoil didn't bother him at all target shooting, and although he's a big kid for his age, he's pretty recoil shy. 
 
I had him in a spot where his longest shot would be 50 yards, so the advantage of the .243 at longer ranges wasn't really an issue. 

Yes, evening hunts are the way to go. 
 
Picking him up at 3:30 at school and getting in the woods a little after 4 was just about perfect for him.  We did that last week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.   Gave us about an hour each hunt - I think it was easier on him mentally to stay focused knowing that when darkness fell the hunt was over instead of possibly stretching all day.  Yesterday we were settled in at exactly 4:12 and this buck hit the deck at 4:32. He's a ball of energy - in a good way.  He plays sports year round and is really active, but he was really able to be still and focus on those short evening hunts. 
 
Fortunately, we have access to some property that is tightly controlled and very limited hunting, so we saw a lot of natural deer movement each evening.  Other than the few that we bumped last week that were bedded near the field, every deer we saw was walking and just moving naturally. 
 
He held the legs apart for me while I gutted, and stuck his gloved hand into the cavity a few times to touch different stuff.  Even just having him spread the legs made it a whole lot quicker.  I had this thing gutted and out of the woods before it was dark, which was really nice.  We drove up a trail about 200 yards and threw him in the back of the Explorer.  But not before the electric fence lit me up in the small of my back belly crawling under it on the way out   He thought it was pretty funny though. 

Sounds like a perfect shot and an end to a great season!  Congrats to the both of you!