I told Michael that I would take him on his first whitetail hunt once I taught him the proper way of shooting a deer by being very accurate with a bow. Winter time is my favorite time of the year to take kids on a hunt. The deer are easy to pattern and you can get them in close for a good, humane shot.

Michael and I set a Double Bull blind up in an apple orchard. Michael and I knew the exact distance that we were going to attempt to harvest a deer and that was 20 yards or less. The morning of the hunt we glassed the area before we were going to go into the blind and we saw the buck with several does feeding in the open in the orchard. We decided to leave and return later, hopefully not spooking any deer while getting into our blind. About 1:00 in the afternoon, Michael and I went back to the orchard and by now it had began to snow very heavily. There were still two deer feeding within 50 yards of the blind. We decided to take our chances and try and sneak into the blind because the buck was not anywhere in sight. Both deer left and went to the other side of the orchard just as we crested the hill.

It wasn’t 15 minutes and there were does feeding within 40 yards of us. And as the snow kept coming down, more deer started to enter the orchard. Michael’s eyes were peeled for anything that moved. Every time another deer would come into the orchard, he had it in view before I did. The deer were feeding with the wind to their backs and coming into us. I put the range finder on a big doe and told Michael that she was within 20 yards. He said he wanted to hold out for the buck.

As the afternoon was going on, there were deer everywhere. Several does had passed within our 20 yard marks. Then I heard Michael whisper, “Don’t move, don’t move, here come two more deer”. As we were watching them come close to us, a third one appeared and it was the 4-point buck. The buck came forward and nudged one of the does in the back end and she ran forward and stopped within feet of our blind. Michael could have reached out and touched the deer—it was that close! We were both holding our breath.

The buck walked at an angle to our left, stopped and looked right into our blind. He was perfectly broadside—the exact shot we had been practicing. But I knew that he was so focused on us or on the deer close to us that any movement and the hunt would be over. I could not believe the amount of patience and control Michael was showing. This went on for at least three minutes, but it seemed like three hours! The buck didn’t move—he just kept staring. Then all of a sudden, the doe standing next to us bolted and I heard her run off behind the blind. Michael was still sitting there ready for the opportunity to draw his bow. For whatever the reason, the buck did not follow the doe. He turned completely around and started walking back toward the other deer and that was Michael’s opportunity. It was as if he had been doing this all his life. The bow came back to full draw, I gave a short grunt, the buck stopped and the arrow was released. Everything went into slow motion. Michael had made a perfect slightly quartering shot! The buck bolted. I looked at Michael and I said, “You pinched! What an incredible shot.” We waited in our blind for about 15 minutes and then stepped out into the orchard. The snow was still coming down and the wind had picked up. I was worried about how the blood trail was going to look with these conditions. We walked up to where the deer had been standing when Michael released the arrow. I could follow the blood trail with my eyes right to the wood line. And there, just inside the woods, lay this magnificent buck and a dream come true for Michael.