Son's First Solo Hunt and First Buck

[ecu1984]

I flew to Nashville for work at the beginning of this week. Earlier today, my youngest and I are talking on the phone and he says, "he is thinking about going to sit a stand this afternoon". He has always gone with me, not because of any rules or any other reason than we just like to go together. So, like a concerned Dad, I tell him where I would sit, review the "unload the gun and use the rope to pull it up into the stand", "Know what is behind what you are shooting at", blah blah blah safety and etiquette stuff and then later in the day I landed at 5:30 this afternoon dead tired and while driving from the airport to the house, I get a text and he says "in the ladder stand but there is a wasp nest up here and not sure I can stay up here much longer as they are buzzing around". About 20 minutes later, I get another text saying he was coming down and headed to the truck (just shy of prime sitting time). Then I get a call and he is excited as all get out and said he was walking to the truck and jumped a buck outta a thicket right on the side of the road just a few feet from him as he was walking out. He said the buck hauled ass into the cut down and stopped after about 60 or 70 yards at the woodline and turned back and looked at him. Wes said he stayed there staring at him long enough to get the Tikka 7mm-08 up and fired. He was concerned that he may have missed him as he went over there and couldn't find any blood or deer. I told him I would head that way to help him look and told him to go back to where he was standing when he shot and take a better mental picture of where the deer was and then walk to it. He called me back and said "I found him" the deer didn't take one step from where he was standing. Dropped like a sack of potatoes. Pretty decent shot and placement for standing upright freehanded in the middle of the road. Really happy for him and pretty cool to help drag your kids first deer out with him. He just told me he wasn't interested in killing anything but 8s or better from now on
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