This past weekend my grandson AJ was again hunting deer with me. He spent Saturday morning in a pop up blind with his step dad Dustin. He passed on a small basket rack 8 and a forkie, he also saw three does. after lunch I decided to "expand" his experience. I told him of a nice 8 point I had seen several evenings over the past two weeks, he could hunt there but he would have to be by himself in a tripod stand. He would need to be in the stand shortly after 3 and stay until dark, no shooting any does that came in until after 5:30, bewcause the buck might come in around that time. He agreed that is where he would hunt. My goal was to initiate the young man into hunting and making good choices and of course safety on his own without supervision.

I take him to the stand and get him up, tied in and his shotgun up safely and loaded and then I walk back to the house(he is only 200 yards behind the house but out of sight). For the first hour I just occasionally step outside or look out the window. Around 4:30 I start dinner watching the field behind the house, when dinner is cooking I set out on the deck watching and listening. At 5:15 I slip out to a clover patch to check on deer activity and at 5:31(I looked at my clock) I hear Aj shoot! Back to the house to get boots on and get my buddy BZeb to help if needed.

Upon arrival at the stand we find AJ setting in the tripod the shotgun lowered and empty of any additional shells. He told us he had shot a doe and watched her fall "over by that tree". We got him down as he told us he saw and had 7 does in front of him and waited until 5:30 for the buck to show. 5:31 he drops the hammer on a doe. We found a good adult doe less tha 30 yards away, the "lessons" continued.......

AJ with the help of BZeb dragged the deer to the road, AJ field dressed the deer by himself with instructions from grandad. Yesterday I woke him and asked him if he wanted to go hunt for a buck or sleep in, he chose the latter. We brought the deer home and he helped his stepdad skin, butcher, wrap,grind and package burger. Long day but he know knows......... when you shoot the work begins.

My lesson again confirmed our youth just want to hunt and take game. Antlers don't mean sqaut to them in the beginning.

Here's AJ and his "I did it all Doe"

Congrats to the young man. I'm sure he will remember his hunt every time he takes a bit of the deer meat. h.h.

Congrats to you and AJ....

Cool! Thanks for sharing that. Congrats to AJ.

Congrats AJ. Celebration of youth harvest of deer is the best.

Nice doe AJ. He'll eat good and you'll always remember that hunt. Congrats

Good deal AJ

Great kid got a great deer. Good job AJ. Congrats to you too gramps.

Great lessons learned and congrats to the both of you!!!

Joe how did you and your crew do on your place? You have not been on here in a while.

Very nice, congrats to the lad.

Good to see another up-and-coming hunter join the ranks.

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We have taken 4 bucks a 125-130 8 in archery, a 120 8 in gun,a 12 point with two broken tines(11 point)130 with broken points and a 10 point with a broken tine that had 9" brow tines that we have pictures to verify he is5 1/2 years old. he also is a 130" class buck, he was larger last year in tine length. We have only two does taken so far but that number will grow quickly as freezers will now fill and only a couple people will be buck hunting.

One thing I will say, the 11 point I killed on opening weekend and the 9 point had both lost alot of weight. There was ZERO fat on both deer, hip bones were showing and no internal fat either. If it is true as predicted this is going to rough winter either of these bucks would have had a rough go of it. This is not to imply we chose to take these bucks because they "may" have been vulnerable to winter kill. It is just a fact of how hard the rut had been on them. The doe AJ killed was laden with fat everywhere. We weighed the 5 1/2 year old buck and he was 160# field dressed.

We have never seen as many broken antlered bucks as this year. Half rack bucks and 8's and 10's that now only have main beams.Great trail cam pictures until Halloween, then the cool weather made for the perfect storm in the rut. Quite a few good bucks got a free pass into next year, and if this old man had seen the broken tines on the 12 pointer he would have been given a chance.

Congratulations to AJ!

How could a "boomflopper" come from your genes?
Congrat's AJ on the nice deer.

Nice doe fellas. Nice job AJ, yer broke in good now!