Today was the eastern rifle opener in NC. My 12 year old has been practicing with his 243 and was excited for the opportunity to get his first deer.
We have a stand overlooking a sweet potato field with a small creek and woods with lots of oaks bordering 1/2 of it and a cut down and a bean field on the rest.
A cold front came through overnight and the wind was perfect, so I headed out to that stand this morning. Just after sun up i heard a diesel, and a tractor entered the field and started mowing to prep for picking.
So we went home for a while but returned for an afternoon hunt.
It was a beautiful afternoon and we saw a big spike, and a couple of does. They stayed out of my sons comfortable range, so we just watched them graze.
With about 10 minutes of legal light left, I could hear something moving through the woods behind us, but couldn't see it through the brush, so I told my son to keep his eyes open. 50 yards to our right a deer walked out, and I could tell right away it was fairly big.
He stopped perfectly broadside and looked right at us, I told my son to take the shot.
He fired and the deer took off stumbling, did a wide 180 and headed back into the woods. He went about 75 yards before crashing in some thick stuff.
He put the bullet right behind the front leg and got both lungs.
The deer is a nice 8 point with 16.25" inside spread. We've got a few trailcam pics of him and he's at least 3 if not older.
My son is ecstatic over his first deer, and I'm one happy dad that I got to share this moment with him.
Sorry for the long winded post.