We headed to the Buddy Stand Saturday night. Three does came into the Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot and Clayton tried to get ready as one came close. It caught some movement and quickly went into the head bobbing and foot stomping routine while Clayton shook uncontrollably from the excitement. The doe stared at him until it had seen enough and ran away taking the others with it.
Right before quitting time, Logan, a young 9-point (yes, we name our bucks from our deer camera photos), came in downwind to within 70 yards or so only to spook before Clayton could get a shot off. Clayton was devastated. I tried to explain that hunting takes lots of patience and most days would end with no shots fired, even if you were lucky enough to see deer.
Clayton was sick Sunday morning and he spent the rest of the day lying on the dining room floor so he could stay close to the bathroom. No hunting therefore on Sunday — so much for muzzleloader season. Have no fear, the boy is a crack shot with the crossbow, so Monday afternoon, New Year’s Eve day, we were off again. We settled into the Buddy Stand and the hunt was on.
At 4:15 p.m. we heard crunching leaves behind us. I squeezed Clayton’s leg and whispered that we needed to sit very still and quiet. Out came two does followed again by Logan, the buck. Clayton attempted to get the crossbow up and the does took off. Logan stuck around almost long enough to get a shot off, but not quite.
I told Clayton to sit still because Logan may be back. About 30 minutes later out came two 6 pointers. Clayton asks if I’d mount the bigger of the two and I said, yes. As he tried to get on target, we heard another deer coming. It was Logan again. The two sixes sparred for a few minutes, then Logan and the bigger six went at it. Before Clayton could shoot they ran off and watched us from the next tree line and then snorted and ran away. How many chances could we expect to get in one afternoon?
A few minutes later another buck comes along the woods from our right. I told Clayton not to look, but he tried anyway and another buck was gone before we could get a closer look. A doe came in from behind us, followed by a spike buck from the left. Another doe, Clayton says it was a fawn, came in from our left, also. It looked nervous but seemed to be looking back into the woods instead of at us.
Something is up. Crunch, crunch and more deer are coming. The others cleared the area. Decoy, a tall diamond-shaped 8-pointer, stepped into the food plot. Crunch, crunch and here comes Tex, our local homeboy — a wide heavy massed 8-pointer. They were both still alive. They survived Ohio’s gun seasons, but obviously they weren’t expecting a little boy to be out so soon after the smokepoles had faded away.
I swear I could feel his heart beating as he sat on my lap. The two big bucks seemed to take turns watching for danger, but Clayton had just enough opportunity to get into position and the shot was finally executed. We watched both bucks run away before congratulating one another and hoping the shot was a good one. Clayton ran the last 50 yards to the house versus the
normal, “Carry me up the hill, Papa.”
He had to be the first back to the house to tell Grandma the news. We changed clothes, ate dinner (try explaining to an excited 7 year old why you don’t want to push a wounded deer), got flashlights and we were off. We found Tex the bruiser buck at the end of a heavy blood trail 150 or so yards away. The pictures tell the rest of the story.
This was quite an ending to the year for this young 7 year old. He had attended Ray Howell’s Kicking Bear Camp, received his compound bow, shot his first deer (button buck) during the youth shotgun season shortly after turning seven and now he shoots a real wall hanger! Tex has been a regular on our property for the past three years. I expect he was 4-1/2 years old. He had and inside spread of 20 inches and green scores 142-1/2 inches. He netted 140-1/2, which made Clayton the youngest hunter ever to qualify for the Buckeye Big Buck Club (Ohio State Record Organization). He shot my biggest buck and I couldn’t be happier! The rewards of QDM efforts fulfilled.
