My son, Reece's First Deer

With the new baby and all that was going on there i didn't get to post this here... Well, my 12yr old son, Reece, has been quite patient last year and this year waiting to shoot the right deer and being very headstrong on shooting his first deer with a bow. He has passed on smaller bucks with his bow and on a very nice BIG 6pt.(and i mean big for a 6) came by once while too dark to shoot with his bow, but even then he wouldn't use the rifle. I was able to help him out on a management buck that was offered to me in a deal on a ranch near home. I asked if my son could try to hunt him with his bow and they agreed. We set up the day for the Monday before Thanksgiving and i took off early to go with him and see if we could make this deal happen.
This buck was a mature buck that had gone 'down-hill' according to the ranch manager and they weren't going to keep him around.
We set up on a nice spot in a ground blind and got settled in for what would turn out to be a pretty exciting hunt. We didn't see much of the buck or his buddies for a couple of hours, but once they came our direction it got pretty crazy. This buck spotted the blind and started stomping and snorting and wheeled off and i thought for sure it was all over. But, he finally was coaxed by his less wary buddies to come graze in our direction. Staying out about 50yds(way too far to let a 12yr old shoot with a bow on his first buck) these deer filtered off 1 by 1 in the wrong direction except for the one we wanted and 1 other buck. When he realized most had left he started to go wide around us as well and just stopped almost 35 yds off. While he was staring and trying to figure us out, the other buck had slowly made his way to within 15 yds of the blind! Well it was all he could stand not to see what that other buck was doing up there and he changed course to walk by us with a perfect broadside shot at about 17yds. With blood pumping and hearts pounding<- plural cuz mine was beating as loud as his, Reece drew and made a nice shot. It was just like they say on the hunting shows..."It just all came together at the last minute." If it had been 5 more mins. we would not have been able to see to shoot. Here are some pics and as you can tell Dad is proud!! (btw, we had to pull off trail and let him layup and expire, then retrieve him the next morning, so pics are of the next day)

Mav