Youth hunt today, ups and downs

River-X

5 year old buck +
Had our youth rifle deer hunt today and tomorrow here in Wisconsin.
I started the day off with taking my older son Will out to the stand just before first light. Deer were tripping the flash camera down in the field as we were walking to the stand and within the first 5 minutes of legal shooting hours we had a small buck walk behind the stand within 20 yards.
10 minutes later two bucks came off the hill out of the woods and began feeding and sparring out in the clover food plot.
Willy hammered the nicest buck of the two and his buck made it about 50 yards before expiring.
He put a very nice double lung shot on him with a 6.5 PRC.EA661735-426F-43E8-9E70-7A17854EE28B.jpeg875B9946-D842-40F3-9E29-0F07849DA028.jpeg
 
Well, at this point, I’m dang happy we got 1 buck down, cleaned up and hanging in the shed and it’s not even 9:00 am. 1 down, 1 to go. Little “C” is up next and his plan is to hunt the evening hunt out of the same stand. I told him it was his choice and that’s where he wanted to go so I agreed and took him out to the same stand around 3:45 this evening. 77 degrees and the blind is acting like a George Foreman mini toaster but we’re all in at this point, no leaving now.
Does start piling into the clover plot around 5:15, bluebird day with slight breeze out of the SSE. Kind of a rare wind for here, but actually kind of perfect for this setup.
16 minutes of legal light left and Little “C” is starting to regret his decision on stand choice with 11 does/fawns in front of him feeding along with a one antlered buck who is sporting 50% of his little 6 point rack.
I was actually tickled pink the plots are pulling deer into this field when there are 85 acres of soybeans standing across the road and all the soybean fields and corn fields on our side are still standing.
15 minutes of shooting hours left and Little “C” sees another deer step out of the woods at 75 yards. It was a “no doubter” for him. A beautiful 8 point with heavy mass and long tines, maybe a 17 inch spread. C waited for a nice broadside shot and wallops him!
I was so excited, but kept my eye on the buck as he donkey kicked, then bolted into the woods.
After dark we found where he had went in and ended up tracking him about 300 yards with great blood at first, very foamy, lots of air bubbles and it slowly began to become less.
We backed out after leaving the trail marked, had not jumped the buck, saw no sign that he had bedded at all on the route, and we still had blood that was not too difficult to follow.
Our guess is that maybe he hit him a bit higher, but definitely clipped one lung real well. Seems like he was headed straight for a real thick ravine so I am hoping he croaks tonight and we find him bedded and dead in the morning.
chime in if anybody has thoughts or questions…
Chris
 
Good luck.
 
We are on the trail now so I will post pics in a bit.
 
Real time…
 
Congrats to both boys. One of the best weekends is youth opener.
 
Fricken AWESOME!
That is way cool…great write ups on the kids. Looking forward to seeing buck #2
 
Sorry about the delay, I was trying to send you guys a picture while we were tracking and didn’t have enough signal i guess. This was Little C and our good friend working through a set of tracks when we lost blood for a few yards. My buddy was explaining to him how the tracks could be just as helpful as the blood on the ground, and to his credit, Little C was listening very well.
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My pal Mick and I let Lil C work the trail up until about 30 yards from where the trail left the ravine ( which is in a thick fence line about 50 yards wide ). I told Lil C that I had the last blood and would hold the spot for him but I wanted him to quick walk out towards the soybeans to see if there was any blood on the ground on the outside edge. So he followed my instruction to walk off to the side off the trail and made his way out to the edge where he spotted the buck lying in the soybeans 2 rows in. We video recorded his reaction. Absolutely priceless!
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Turns out, Little C’s buck was a beautiful 10 pointer with a handsome 3 yo filled out body. After leaving his trail last night to let him bed up and expire, he traveled in A straight line about another 250 yards and bedded just outside the fence line, above the ravine, 2 rows into the soybean field. He had himself set up in a great bed to see the field, hear the ravine, and smell his back trail direction. Truly one of God’s impressive survival machines. The hit on the buck, was slightly low on the entrance side with just a touch of quartering away. Bullet went in right at the diaphragm and took out the opposite side lung. There was blood in the lining of the abdominal cavity but no gut material. No punctures to the stomach or intestines, just ripped his diaphragm and went into his lung.
It was a very educational wound/track situation and thankfully it all worked out. I don’t think we ever bumped him last night, but that he was just walking slowly ahead of us waiting until he couldn’t hear or smell us before bedding down. Just my guess really, but fits the sign I was seeing.
 
Another youth season in the books for me and the boys. Hope you had as much fun reading the stories as we had making them! A parting shot to show two very happy and very proud hunters.
p.s. Now dad can start Bowhunting for the season 62398455-D39A-464C-BA66-D10FD92678E6.jpeg
 
Awesome day!
 
That is to cool!
That could not have turned out better, second buck is really nice…might end up with a taxi bill on that one.
 
Thanks guys! H20Fowlr, no doubt, we caped him out and he is heading to the taxi tomorrow.
 
Love it! Great thread and well done dad.
 
Threads like this always bring a smile to my face! Great job with the young ones! Congrats to all involved.
 
Great job! I enjoy helping young guys more than taking one myself! You guys did a great job, look at those smiles!
 
That is an awesome story, great job Dad! I seem to look forward to my daughters hunts more than my own season anymore.
Love to see the success especially with our youth, great job River!
 
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