Well, after drawing a blank earlier this week and not seeing nearly as many deer as we normally see on a friend's little piece of paradise, my son got it done tonight. Some little forks on those horns, so it's a 4 point.
He could've nailed 3 or 4 similar bucks last year, but he had set his standards a bit higher. He had a chip shot at this buck earlier this year as well. It's not that he's watched too many hunting shows, it's just that he likes to challenge himself.
Last year during gun season, he wouldn't use a gun, choosing instead to hunt with his bow. He gave up spinning rods a few years ago, except when we're fishing for catfish, and always throws flies on the water. In many ways, he's a lot like me, but not in this way. He's his own man when it comes to challenging himself in the woods or on the water.
He's a freshman in high school now and turned 15 this past Saturday. Beginning next Friday, his basketball coach will keep him busy 6 days a week through mid February. With evening commitments for me the next 3 days, and him being away on a church youth group retreat Saturday, I told him to he should let one fly if he had the chance at any buck or doe. Realistically, we might have three opportunities to hunt during gun season with him playing and me coaching the 7th grade team at our middle school. I told him any buck with a bow is a trophy, especially at 15.
It was a 23 yard chip shot, broadside. He hit it a little high and a little back, but got the high, back leg mule kick, so I was pretty confident we'd find a dead deer eventually. The arrow had good blood on it - not the bright pink frothy blood an archery hunter loves to see, but not super dark either. The deer crossed a right of way, and headed onto the neighbor's property where we have permission to recover deer, but not hunt. We backed out for an hour and a half, and came back.
The blood trail was OK. He was heading down hill, and obviously stumbling and kicked up a lot of leaves. Not a difficult tracking job, but not super easy either. He was piled up about 100 yards from the shot. He got the back of the near side lung and the liver.
Here's where it gets crazy.
I called a good friend who has shot lots of deer with a bow (I only ever killed one with a bow in my life) and texted him a pic of the arrow and described the shot, just to make sure we'd be OK to go in tonight. His 8 year old and my 8 year old are best friends, and they met up with the three of us just after we had found it. This was my son's 4th deer, and it was time for him to field dress one on his own.
My buddy and I walked him through it, and as he was reaching up in to cut the esophagus and get the heart and lungs out, he cut himself. Bad.
He took off his glove, and his hand and wrist were covered in his own blood. He got an artery, and blood was squirting out of his hand with each heart beat. I lost my mind. Thank God my friend was there to calmly apply pressure and calmly tell me to shut the hell up and quit freaking out and that I didn't need to call 911. Fortunately, my wife works in the medical field and we were a mile from home. I called her to come get him, and by the time she got there, I had to sit on the ground because I was about to pass out. Never been so freaked out by an injury in my life. She took him to the ER as I sat next to my car waiting for the blood flow to return to my brain, which took a good 5 minutes.
Thankfully, he's getting stitched up now and a dose of IV antibiotics, and some for the road. Doc said he'll be fine, but a bit lower would've been real bad.
Lesson learned. Never assume a 15 year old actually knows how to use a knife safely.