A Boy's First Buck (Pennsylvania Whitetail)

jmveverka

jmveverka

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Joined
Mar 4, 2016
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129
Location
Shenandoah County, Virginia
Not sure if anyone is interested in these things, but figured I'd post a brief account of our hunt on Saturday. My son Andrew is 11 years old. He got his first deer last year, a small doe, on my dad's property in Northwest Pennsylvania. He was super happy about the harvest but immediately started talking about wanting to get his first buck. You might say he has "buck fever". I remind him often that he is ahead of me since I got my first deer at 12 (he was 10) and my first buck at 16. We live in Virginia but I do most of my hunting here on the National Forest (too far and mountainous) or in urban archery (limited to hunter only) and he is not able to do either with me. We have been out a few times on some buddy's land and a piece of private I have access to, but he has passed on a couple of does in search of his first buck.

We have been hunting on this property in PA for 30 years and it has gotten MUCH better since I was a kid. Lots of deer, plenty of bucks, and the bucks are bigger thanks to PA instituting a 3 point antler restriction (waived for mentored youth hunters). We have traveled a lot this year, but this kid has been looking forward to this trip and wanted to hunt out of "his" blind, so after work on Friday we made the 5+ hour drive and got in at midnight for the Saturday morning hunt.

The morning had us in the blind early. Temps were in the 20's but he is bundled up well. Just after first light a buck came in very quickly from behind us and had us pegged through the window of the blind before Andrew could get ready for the shot.
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A few does also came in and he was still set on waiting for a buck. TO warm up we moved a little and he said he was willing to try climbing one of the old tree stands we have. He made the climb but was a bit uncomfortable with the height and the situation. Sat there for a little longer and had a nice opportunity on some does, he again chose to pass, though i think he was starting to think about shooting. I left the decision up to him, the freezer is well stocked so we are not in a meat crisis, but he has also only killed one der and I encouraged him to shoot when he wanted to. Fear won out and we climbed down from the tree stand and made another brief ground sit around some still active scrapes. A couple more does seen, but no more bucks. Returning to the truck we found a nice 10-point that must have been shot last week, likely on the opener last Saturday, or possibly struck by a car. We did not do an extensive investigation to find out, but its a shame to lose one like that in either situation. back to the house for some lunch and to warm up this kid's feet.


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This property has been timbered a few times and has a nice "pocket" where pressured deer go to bed down. With a lot of hunting pressure on neighboring properties we figure a lot of the deer would be laying in this corner in the afternoon. We were hoping they would still get up in time to come out to the field edge, but decide to help them along with a slow push from the opposite side. We setup on top of a large log pile from the last timber job. We were in good position to shoot the field or a good distance into the woods. It did not take long for deer to start moving. Andrew spotted a deer working toward the field. He thought it was a doe, but once it was in the field I was able to see that he was a spike buck. Andrew tried to get into position to shoot, but at the slightest movement he was keyed into us. The deer was not yet spooked, but on high alert. Andrew and I stayed still and the spike stood for 10 minutes before deciding to walk back into the woods. Andrew was now getting antsy to shoot, but I told him we had plenty of time with a full hour of shooting light left. When a group of does came out into the field his decision mode turned into - "if its brown its down." he tried to reposition to get a shot, but the does moved out of range before he could get set. Luckily a new group of does came out in the same spot. He was set and took the shot.
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She jumped in the air and took off, I watched her run off and had him reload (single shot .243). She did not look injured and all we had was some white hair - no blood. (Grid search on Sunday turned up no further sign of a hit and suspect a glancing low shot). Next thing we know all hell is breaking loose. There are deer moving everywhere in this woodlot. I told him that we have to be absolutely sure of a buck since we did not know for certain if he had a doe down, I suspected not. Soon the deer were moving toward us. We had two does directly in front of us less than 40 yards away. There was a litlle 5-point right behind them but he had to cross a down tree-top before we could get a clear shot. Andrew was set and ready with the crosshairs on where he would soon be, but the does in front of us were on alert. I could see more deer behind them including another little buck and I was working on contingencies in case we were busted. Off to our left I see two more does followed by a good buck. They were making a line to come out into the open field at about 50-60 yards. I whispered to Andrew to quickly turn and get set for a shot. He repositioned again and I whistled and grunted to get the buck to stop. According to script he stops broadside at 60 yds, but Andrew was not yet ready and the buck bolts...But the does he was following stopped when he did and had not yet moved so he stopped when he caught up to them at 90 yards and that little .243 cracked off. The big buck hunched and ran 40 yards and died. Andrew says "I HIT HIM" and I said yes you did and I think he is down (out of sight in some weeds), but reload in case he gets up. He reloads and we wait a few minutes. I see no sign of him getting up so we climb down off of the wood pile. I have him hand me the gun to approach the deer since I don't think he would be able to get a shot off at the deer if it jumped out of the goldenrod brush. We get to the deer with just enough light to get some pics. That smile says it all, talk about a "grip and grin"!

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Mtnhunter1 said:
That's just awesome! Congrats to your son and way to go Dad!

Curious question coming from someone in the west, What was the size of the property that you two are hunting?
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Our property on that side of the road is about 82 acres. The full contiguous piece of woods/fields - what we refer to as our "square" which includes all of the neighboring properties not bisected by roads is about 500 acres.
 
Well, I bet that your "square" seems as big as the Bob Marshall Wilderness to your 11yo son!

I really enjoyed your account through a father's eyes. I predict decades of family adventures from that smile!!!
 
That’s a great PA buck, especially for an 11 year old. Congrats. I’m planning on bringing my almost 3 year old along for a sit in a box blind in southeast PA later on this week.
 
heck yeah that's awesome! I get so amped when I hear of a PA story and none the less of a youth! He will never forget that moment, I never did!

Something special about PA deer season, I can't wait to get back there and hunt it with my dad next year.
 
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