We arrived at my uncles land in Jackson County around 7 am which was about a half hour later than we wanted but that was okay since we would be able to see if there was any deer on our way in to our blind at a pinch point in the field. On our way to our blind my son say "deer" and I look up the field and there is a mid 130's 10 pointer trotting at an angle away from us at about 200 yards. I was carrying the gun and decided not to take the shot because I wanted my son to be the one to get a shot at a buck. Finally we go settled into our blind and started the wait. Around 8:00 I noticed a deer coming out of the woods to our left and he started feeding in the field(some sort of radish planted by farmer that rents the field). I checked the deer out and saw that it was a 1.5yr old buck and told my son to get ready. So he got his gun on the shooting sticks and tried finding the deer in the scope. The buck was feeding broadside to use so I told him to shoot whenever he had the opportunity. He said that he couldn't get on him because there was a branch in the way so we waited. While waiting a bigger buck ran across the upper part of the field and the 1.5yr old buck decided to follow him and ran pretty much straight away from us offering my son no shot opportunities. He was kinda bummed but kept a positive attitude. Around 9:30 his feet were getting so cold that I asked him if he wanted to go home for awhile and then come back in the afternoon and hunt and he said sure.
We arrived back at my uncle's land around 3:30pm(later than we had wanted) and started to trek down the edge of the field to our blind. On the way there I looked at the hillside behind our blind and saw a deer walking. I put the scope on it and saw that it was a big spike. I told my son what it was and he said that he wanted to shoot it so I gave him the gun. He placed the gun on his shooting sticks and was trying to find the buck in the scope as he was slowly walking through the trees. As he was moving his gun the shooting stick fell and the buck finally noticed us and took off trotting over the top of the hill. Again a little disappointed of the missed opportunity but as we would later find out it was a blessing. After seeing that deer on his feet already we slipped into the edge of the woods and slowly made our way to our blind. Once there we quietly got settled in and began the wait. As we were sitting there my son who is trach dependent had to cough a couple times and I thought in my mind that with less than an hour to hunt our chances now went down after his coughing. About 15 minutes later I caught movement to the right of us and immediately saw that it was a buck. I told him to get ready as the buck was slowly walking across the field and stopping occasionally. I told him that he was about 100 yards out and to hold upper shoulder on him and to take the shot when he had it. The buck stopped a third time and the shot rang out! The buck mule kicked and ran about 50 yards and into the woods. From my seat I saw him circle and crash. I was so excited and told my son that his buck just crashed inside the woods. We fist bumped and I congratulated him on an awesome shot and getting his first buck.
Neither of us knew how big the buck was when he shot, I knew he was at least a 2.5yr old but wasn't sure how many points. Even though I saw him crash I decided we should wait about 15 minutes before we went out to track him. During that 15 minutes I texted all of my friends and family that Jacob had just crushed his first buck. After the 15 mins we walked out in the field to find the blood trail and follow it. To my surprise we couldn't find any blood so we headed to where I saw him tip over. As we got close to the edge of the woods I saw the buck lying there dead facing us and saw how big his rack was. I told my son there's your buck and at first he couldn't see it but eventually saw him lying there. We circled around him and I poked him with the gun and there wasn't any movement. I gave my son a huge hug and told him how proud I was of his perfect shot and getting his first buck. Neither of us could believe how big he was. He was a huge bodied 8 pointer with long brows that I had on my trail camera. We figure he is a 3.5 yr old even though his rack isn't huge we have noticed that most of the bucks have smaller racks this year due to the hard winter and late green up in our area.
It doesn't matter if I get a buck this year with gun or bow it will still be my best hunting season to date! Here are some pics of Jacob with his Jackson County buck.
