From our friend Danny, who has been watching hundreds of deer and more than 30 bucks all summer:

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I set up a tent blind a few weeks ago at a spot where I saw some deer hanging out. My nephew Colby decided he would try it out. He passed a few bucks the first night he hunted it, but he was able to get it done the other evening.

Colby had shot several deer previously with rifle and crossbow, but he decided it was time for a compound bow. He saved up his money and bought his first bow last spring.  He practiced all summer and it paid off.  Hope he doesn’t think it’s always this easy!

Around 7:40 that evening I saw several bucks from my stand, heading in his direction.  I could see 6 bucks heading his way, but I couldn’t see the last 150 yards they had to travel. While I was watching these bucks he sent me a text and said he had just shot.  I was focused on the deer that were 300 yards away from me, in the middle of the field; I thought it was odd that he shot and those deer didn’t react. I texted him back and told him not to move, I’d be there in 30 minutes.

About a half hour later his dad picked me up and the three of us got on the blood trail. It got dark on us, but Colby had made a perfect lung shot and the trail was easy to follow by flashlight. It only took a short tracking job to recover Colby’s first compound buck.

He doesn’t know how proud I am of him for doing this. I was with him when he got his first deer when he was 8. He will be 16 next week. He decided on his own that he wanted to hunt with a compound bow. He put in the time practicing, and it paid off.

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Colby’s buck was not one of the many that I have watched for months all summer. It was one of more deer that just showed up last week. He was covered in warts on his face, sides and groin. I cut a few of them open thinking they might be swollen ticks, but they looked like solid fat. I would have recognized that deer all summer from the warts.—Danny

Way to go Colby! By the way, those warts are called cutaneous fibromas.  Biologists say these hairless growths are not all that uncommon on whitetail deer in the summer. But I have spent more than 30 years observing and hunting deer and have never seen an animal like this.Colby’s deer does not seem to have that many warts, so the meat should be fine to eat.