My son was able to harvest his 2nd buck (of season & of his life) last evening. The night before he missed a 5 point. He was pretty sad about it, but I view it as an excellent learning experience. We spent some time during the day yesterday shooting and building his confidence. For his age he shoots quite well and is plenty lethal. I think he got a little buck fever on the miss. 
Several does came out into a turnip plot and then a spike. My only "rule" was whatever he shoots has to be bigger or older than the last one. Then a basket rack 8 point came out and Dakota got super excited. I asked him if he wanted to wait to see if a bigger one came out. He certainly did not! He wanted to shoot the 8 point. I said OK bud and made him take some deep breaths. I got on the binos and finally about 20 seconds later... boom! I saw the bucks front half collapse and he snowplowed into the cover. I knew he had smoked it. He handled my smaller smokeless with no problem with the normal/full load. So fun. So many teaching opportunities. We ate inner loins last night and talked about food to table and I smiled as he told his mom his hunting story.
Several does came out into a turnip plot and then a spike. My only "rule" was whatever he shoots has to be bigger or older than the last one. Then a basket rack 8 point came out and Dakota got super excited. I asked him if he wanted to wait to see if a bigger one came out. He certainly did not! He wanted to shoot the 8 point. I said OK bud and made him take some deep breaths. I got on the binos and finally about 20 seconds later... boom! I saw the bucks front half collapse and he snowplowed into the cover. I knew he had smoked it. He handled my smaller smokeless with no problem with the normal/full load. So fun. So many teaching opportunities. We ate inner loins last night and talked about food to table and I smiled as he told his mom his hunting story.
