Great story from Joe in NJ:

Hi Mike: My son, Luke, got his bow for Christmas last year and practiced with it all year. He took and passed his bowhunter’s education course in October. Unfortunately he had to wait until his 10th birthday to get his “official” hunting license (one of those laws that I never understood).

Luke was very excited to start hunting and we went as much as possible in the few weeks since his birthday. He had a great encounter with a 9-pointer and a 7-pointer, but he was not able to get a shot within his 15-yard effective range. After a few more hunts he was able to get a shot at a 7 pointer. Unfortunately the hit was very high. We followed very little blood for over 300 yards. We are confident we will see that deer again.

Luke was not discouraged and wanted to get back out there. We set up in our favorite spot on a Tuesday. It was not long before we saw a small buck and 5 does in a field about 120 yards from us. Ten minutes later Luke asked me, “What is that noise?” I looked in the field and saw 2 nice bucks sparring. Then 2 more bucks appeared. There was a spike, two 8-pointers and the 9-pointer, and they were walking right to us! I told Luke to get ready.

The 9-pointer was the first one in, and he stopped at 10 yards, quartering away. Luke drew his bow (and the attention of the deer, as seen in the picture of the deer looking up at us!). He aimed for a bit and released…and made a perfect pass-through shot! The deer ran 50 yards, stumbled and fell over. Not bad for a 35-pound bow!

You could hear us both a mile away. The picture I sent you is the moment he found his deer. You can see the pure excitement in his face. BTW, a lot of that is missing on today’s TV shows.

This might be the biggest deer he gets for some time. He would have been happy with a doe, but he is very excited about his trophy buck. Carl Osterlund of All-Game Taxidermy has offered to mount this deer on the house for Luke. We are very grateful, and I think Luke owes him a few hours in the shop.

As a side note, I was able to take an awesome 13 pointer on the opening day of our muzzleloader season. But I am much more excited about Luke’s first bow kill. Thanks for the great blog Mike.—Joe

Awesome story, way to go Luke, proud of you buddy! Cool you guys got a picture of that buck before you whacked him!