![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
As with all new deer season opening weekends, this year started with high hopes and expectations...
Youth weekend he didn’t see a deer but was still confident and positive without ruining his interest. Opening day he was the only one in our party to see a deer, when he still hunted upon a doe in the wind........ 2nd weekend opened with Zac as interested as ever... I had to work nights This past Friday night and his dad brought him over for Sat morning well before 1st light for the sneak in. I had gottten some buck pics near my west ladder stand on my property over the last 2 days.(can see one of the 6 wicks I put up in the area in the cam pic under the 4pt) To date, Zac has only sat in my blinds or a double ladder his dad or I sit in with him... at 14, he wants to go solo and clip in by himself. His dad and I decide to let him do it. As the only set we have in this area is a single ladder. Zac has been safe with everything else he has done. So with his dad a 3rd of a mile away in a ground blind, Zac clips in 15ft up under a big hemlock in “deer central” a good half hr before shooting time... around 7am a 4pt works its way in but is busy running around checking the hot doe scent wicks I had put out 2 days prior. He could not get a shot, even after using his grunt call to try to stop him... On the way home I saw the text, on my dash screen to his dad that a 4 pt had just been under his tree stand. Seems like a life time, but only Moments (according to the group text stream) later a buck comes from behind Zac, even bigger! This is a 5pt and he ends up heart shooting it at 10 yards as it cruises by him headed for a wic to his left.. the buck goes 40 yards and piles up. Zac is texting us about the blood trail as dad and grandpa are trying to make our way to him as fast as we can. (My poor truck)
![Embarrassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
I’m reading the texts as the action unfolds on the way home from work with tears of joy running down my face.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
2020 buck season is complete Zac got his 1st buck. What composure he showed with the bucks running all around him yesterday mornin.
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
His 1st hunt solo in a ladder set, and he kills his 1st buck. Next year I may not be able to get him to use a blind:)
5pt 180lbs on hoof and 149 fully dressed.
Congrats Zac that is a hunt you will never forget!!! The smiles we saw yesterday are part of why the love of the hunt runs so deep.
Still need one myself before I kick off frostbite, but hopefully soon. They are running around during day up here still searching for does...
One disclaimer, both Zac and his Dad Tom wore hunter orange hats that were removed for pics and the hot drag... Looking back we should have been flying orange that whole time...safety 1st...